Inspired by locally developed letterboxd.com and other journaling / microblogging platforms of yesteryear we decided to build our own music focused system: “What are we listening to?“
It’s a work in progress – currently there’s no way to follow and receive updates like our are.na page – but it is a far better system for tailoring recommend music links.
Why bother?
Customisation – We have the skills, so we may as well use them to craft a system that suits our exact requirements and habits.
After using are.na for a couple of years (although it’s a very cool system) we realised there’s plenty of room for improvement.
The system uses a simplified form embedded in the main page rather than redirecting to a back-end editor.
The form is intentionally minimalist. The system scrapes info and formats accordingly.
examples:
- Soundcloud links have a hidden player activated by a play icon over the image.
- Bandcamp tracks have a player below the image
- Bandcamp Albums have a link (album player is loaded only on the share page links)
Customisation
If you want to customise the link preview just click edit once published.
Editing is optimised for mobile devices via a menu to show each aspect individually.
We’re not aware of any specialised music microblogging systems. If you can recommend something please let us know.
Is this something you’d use? – A platform to collate, share and browse feeds from DJs, critics, tastemakers, collectors, friends and musicians etc…?