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Ask HN: Please review my webapp: Playlistr

4 points by sli ↗ HN
I've been a Python programmer for years, now, but web frameworks have always given me trouble. Over the past two days, I became determined to learn a Python web framework once and for all and came up with Playlistr. Playlistr is a small webapp for generating playlists of internet radio stations, something that I've always found to be tedious to manage. It's essentially a webapp version of a similar script I wrote about a year ago.

It's (obviously) lacking in the polish department, and the current selection of stations is small (for development purposes). Planned features include Google account support for saving your selected stations, caching of stream URLs for each station to speed things up a bit, and more output formats.

http://playlistr.appspot.com

12 comments

[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 34.3 ms ] thread
e1ven
I'm on a machine without sound at the moment, so I didn't get a chance to try the resulting playlist, but the interface is very easy to understand, and useful to throw together quickly.

Are you going to extend it to other genres later on? Since this is sending a standard m3u file, would it work on the iphone?

Sounds like a fun app.

sli
Actually, my original plan was to organize the stations by genre. But after fleshing out the idea a little more, it started to seem either a bit subjective, or way too generalized. For example: do I group electronic into breaks, dubstep, house, trance, etc? Or put it all under electronic? In the end, it was easier to organize by sources.

New stations will be coming once I finish the Google account and cache support.

revorad
Good effort sli! I was all set to hear some drum n bass when I clicked Generate playlist. But was surprised when Winamp popped up! I had even forgotten I had it on my computer.

I think you should have an embedded music player. There are tons of free swf's out there.

It's good that you've identified a problem - managing playlists of internet radio stations - but it's not clear what your proposed solution is.

Keep us posted on the developments.

sli
The idea is you visit Playlistr once in a while and download an updated version of your playlist, in case the station has added and removed servers. It will be a bit more user-friendly when it starts remembering the stations you've selected, which will reduce the workflow to a mere: 1. Visit Playlistr 2. Click 'Generate' button
revorad
Cool. I'll bookmark it.
pbhjpbhj
in case the station has added and removed servers.

Does that happen a lot?

sli
More than you'd think. It's especially bad with Digitally Imported. I've seen them add and remove new servers to the same station twice in one week.
nym
You need a tagline. My first reaction was "what does this do? something about music?". Obviously with more effort I was able to figure it out.

"Custom playlists in 3 steps" would do it.

Also your "Generate Playlist" button doesn't immediately read as a button. See this article to see what I mean: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/13/call-to-action-bu...

nym
Here's another good article on button design: http://www.getelastic.com/cta-size/
sli
Ah, thanks you! It's obvious that I'm a programmer, and not a designer. Haha.
nym
No problem.
sli
I'm having a designer make me a much nicer logo with a tagline, so for now I added directions. I'll tackle the button when I get access to Photoshop later tonight.