Building a beach
I've begun building an app I've always wanted.
I have been collecting music in all forms for as long as I can remember.
It used be easy to keep on top of what I wanted to listen to, I would just use the 'Recently added' playlist in iTunes or one of the few records I owned.
But in the last decade+ it's been much harder to stay on top of things. On a given day I might listen to various forms of physical media, the radio and a plethora of digital music:
- Online radio show archives
- Youtube videos
- Bandcamp
- Random mp3s
- Something from the internet archive
- DSPs
- Discogs links
Every day I might see 10 releases that I would love to listen to which often get lost to the sands of time. I've tried many solutions to this:
- A physical list
- Reminder apps
- Playlists
But nothing has stuck for me. There is always too much friction to add the thing, it can't be done (you can't add a Youtube video to Apple Music) or there's too much friction to go from the list to the playing the music. I enjoy a small amount of friction to keeping on top of music (otherwise I wouldn't be as keen on physical media and would just listen to whatever Spotify told me to ad inifinitum). But having to keep all of these potentially wonderful sources of music in my head results in me feeling like I'm constantly forgetting things that would bring me a great amount of joy.
Whilst this issue has been on my mind I've loved using Reeder (the classic, non-subscription version). Following RSS feeds rather than reading websites is much more pleasurable way to read the web for me. Being able to add things to my 'Read later' list across any device at the touch of button in two clicks is great. Rather than listlessly reading content the algorithm wants me to see on a given day I can curate my own algorithm and reading list. It sounds small those who follow this approach know how huge the difference is. RSS is awesome.
So naturally I thought, what would the Reeder of music look like? Well, quite different. For me, music is never 'done' - every time you listen to a piece of music, an album, a mix, a song is different. The best music can be listened to an infinite number of times and still bring as much joy as the first time you heard it. Whilst this may be true of some written word it is not true of the majority of pieces I collect and read in Reeder. I can often tell if I want (or need) to read something again the first time I read it, but the same isn't true for music. Something that feels average or unintresting on first listen can go on to become something with more depth that I could've imagined. This is but one major difference I hope to build into the platform, and there will be more that I will detail as I go.
In an era of personal software I'm excited to build something that solves something for me but I also hope that there are a few other people this is useful for. If there is one thing I have strong opinions about it's music. But I do hope others find On The Beach useful.
NB: The name is taken from the Neil Young album or the Chris Rea album or because it's my favourite place or I just thought it would be funny to say 'I'm going to put that on On The Beach' or I just had to name it something and it was in the head at the time.