BOOM (shuffle)

My CHI buddy, Matt, has been ultra-secretive about his fall project, offering only cryptic Facebook and Twitter status messages about his work and job status (Matt survived some Snocap layoffs recently). Late Monday, Matt tweeted a link to BoomShuffle, a web-based music streaming service that is likely the reason for the hush-hushedness.

My first attempt to blog about Matt’s work last week resulted in a request to wait a few more days. But even if I couldn’t share my delight with the world, I have benefited from five days of use of the music sharing service with an attitude.

BoomShuffle, for streaming music mixes

The days of creating music mixes constrained by tape or CD storage size are over. BoomShuffle offers limited customization (you can select the mix title, description and collection artwork) and viral invites to share your music with others. It is possible to build mixes together, or just create something you and the rest of the public can enjoy while online. The mix assembly process is fairly straightforward, offering a reasonable list of similar artists to go with individual songs. Not every song I wanted was in the database, but for classic rock the selection was fine. There were a few glitches (I couldn’t upload a profile picture), but nothing unusual for a new site release. In the week I had to wait to post this, several improvements were already completed.

The song selection is somewhat limited right now. With my first mix—”Brother from Another Mother“—I was dismayed to find only one Bob Schneider album in the database (Lonelyland) and none available for mixing without purchase through iTunes. I already have his CDs and am currently poor, so experimenting with paying for some songs I already own wasn’t appealing. This is a result of legal restrictions that require a purchased copy to back the song play, a costly endeavor out of the box. Selection will improve, probably rapidly, to allow my Bob Schneider and New Orleans Jazz needs to be met. The biggest hits are plentiful, though. My second try quickly got me a string of 42 familiar songs from my past.

One of the neat features of the site isn’t a tool or button—it is the language in the dialogues. Successfully creating a new mix results in an “Awesome!” button, and skipping too many songs in a row gets you a playful, “That button gets worn out if you use it too much …” It is a small detail, but the shunning of traditional feedback messages adds some personality to the site. It is very reminiscent of Matt’s capstone project, ShoutOuts, a computer-mediated cheering community that connects fans watching the same game in different locations.

Congratulations, Matt, on boomshuffle. Listening to some tunes now. Now start blogging again.

Classic (from xkcd)