Algorithm free music streaming. Just a feed of new albums from artists and labels in your Apple Music Library. (Apple Music required for playback and library syncing.)
Spotify is a white-noise machine.
Music streaming services are designed to maximize time spent in-app.
They're built for people who like music generally, not specifically.
And they're all the same.
We spend a lot of time talking about shifts in consumer behavior but not nearly enough about how intentional design choices have driven them. For starters:
- Playlists decontextualize songs (adding friction to fandom)
- "Popularity" prioritizes music that doesn't "burn" (aka muzak)
- Algorithmic recommendation flattens reality to fit it (artists create for the algorithm)
- Choice overload drives to familiar safety
We're asking too much of artists to create the way they want, without being self-promoters & too much of music fans to consume the way they want, without fighting against design. Intentional music listeners may be the smallest category, but they are necessary to achieve escape velocity (ie cumulative advantage: what is popular tends to become more popular).
So I built an app for algorithm-free streaming. It's just a podcast-app-style feed of new albums from artists & labels you follow (or are in your library already). I know this only suits a minority of listeners, but I think they are the most critical & underserved. Let me know if you have any thoughts?
Hey Travis,
Play Nice seems like a breath of fresh air in music streaming!
How do you curate the new albums in the feed?
Is there any way for users to discover new artists based on their current library?
Congrats on the launch!
@kyrylosilin Thanks!
The new albums in the feed are based on the artists & labels in your Apple Music library (or just a list of manually followed labels you can adjust on the User tab). You can follow them just like you would a Podcast feed and their albums will show up like Podcast episodes would.
Yes! New artist suggestions will automatically populate in the User>Artists page and you'll see releases from artists you don't follow if you follow record labels (the idea is if you like one artist they've released, you'll probably like others).
Play Nice
Telebugs
Play Nice