My weekend programming project was to build a bare-bones version of Roadtrip Mixtape that runs on an iPhone. This is an MVP (a term I learned from my Product Management buddies at work) – with only 5 basic features:
- You can press ‘next’ and the app plays a song by the nearest band to where you are right now.
- You can press ‘pause’ to pause/resume the playing
- You can login to Rdio so you can listen to full streams
- You can look at the album art
- You can simulate moving to another location (I was getting sick of listening to just Nashua music).
This is the first significant bit of iOS programming that I’ve done. It is a lot of fun. Xcode has tons of features that make working with all the idiosyncrasies of the platform manageable. There’s a huge amount of documentation including many tutorials, examples and recorded WWDC talks, plus tons more info on Stack Overflow. To stream music I’m using the Rdio iOS SDK. It is very easy to use, very well documented, with lots of good examples. I thought that getting music to play was going to be the hard bit of this project, but it was actually really easy. Well done Rdio programmers!
Tomorrow I’ll take V0.1 on its maiden test drive on my commute to work to see how well it works on the road. I suspect that the playlists will not be the most listenable since they are often filled with very long tail artists. On the list for V.2 will be the ability to add popularity and style filters to make it more likely that music that I actually like appears in the playlist.
Oh and I came up with a new working title for the app = ‘Hear Here’. Not sure if I’m 100% on board with the name though. No one likes puns anymore.
Music Machinery 
#1 by hawkse on June 25, 2012 - 7:42 am
Sounds like great fun – would you consider opensourcing this for others to tinker with?
#2 by Paul on June 25, 2012 - 7:45 am
I’m considering it. BTW, Rdio has a pretty neat example app that is in the app store. Has high tinker factor:
In the app store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/music-quiz-for-rdio/id434015378
On git hub: https://github.com/rdio/rdioquiz-ios
#3 by Summer on June 26, 2012 - 12:32 am
What a clever idea. I don’t suppose there’s a way to put the beta on my iPhone. Got 36 hours driving through Texas next week and would love to learn about Tejano music!
#4 by Paul on June 26, 2012 - 9:36 am
summer – sorry not ready for a beta yet. — Paul
#5 by Kevin Ebaugh (@kevinebaugh) on June 26, 2012 - 11:48 am
I’m driving from Boston to San Francisco starting around July 11th. If the beta’s ready by then, my drive will be one heck of a test :)
#6 by marnihoyle on June 27, 2012 - 12:54 pm
How can you say that?! It is a GREAT name for the app. Hear Here.