Listen up
January 22, 2011 8:46 AM Subscribe
WELCOME!
Listening Room is a website for listening to music with your friends. Anyone in a room can play mp3s from their computer, and everyone hears the same thing at the same time.
The description pretty much says it all; a really interesting wee in-browser listening club. The developer, Abe Fettig, runs a blog which he updates occasionally with news about developments etc., and where you can leave feedback and suggestions. A room called mefi is right here if you want to jump straight in.
The description pretty much says it all; a really interesting wee in-browser listening club. The developer, Abe Fettig, runs a blog which he updates occasionally with news about developments etc., and where you can leave feedback and suggestions. A room called mefi is right here if you want to jump straight in.
Ooh, and awesome way to share music with your friends! I give it three hours before the RIAA shuts it down.
posted by ALongDecember at 8:57 AM on January 22, 2011 [8 favorites]
posted by ALongDecember at 8:57 AM on January 22, 2011 [8 favorites]
Just what I needed with 16 hours of work on the computer ahead of me :D
MUSIC > ALL
posted by jet_manifesto at 8:58 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
MUSIC > ALL
posted by jet_manifesto at 8:58 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Yep, that's my fear too. Because this would be a great way for my brother to share things with me that don't involve me having to search for stuff or stop the music just to get to his next thing.
posted by theichibun at 8:59 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by theichibun at 8:59 AM on January 22, 2011
Yeah, this is a pretty great and simple idea. The music streams aren't entirely reliable on the MeFi channel, but it's useful.
posted by Nelson at 9:13 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by Nelson at 9:13 AM on January 22, 2011
This is pretty damn cool. I hope it doesn't get shut down or become unusable due to bandwidth issues. I'm not sure what the maximum numbers of users in a room is, but if it's more than a few I can see it falling into the same "music isn't free" problems that hit Muxtape and other streaming online mix sites.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 9:17 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 9:17 AM on January 22, 2011
Do I have to be the one to say this? Do I have to be the old fogey? I used to invite friends over to the house and play 45s on the phonograph, and we'd all listen to the same thing.
posted by acrasis at 9:22 AM on January 22, 2011 [9 favorites]
posted by acrasis at 9:22 AM on January 22, 2011 [9 favorites]
Awesome. For some reason I'd assumed something like this already existed. Glad I'm now right :D
On preview: acrasis: people still get together to listen to music, but with a site like this, the experience need no longer limited by geography.
posted by kilo hertz at 9:25 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
On preview: acrasis: people still get together to listen to music, but with a site like this, the experience need no longer limited by geography.
posted by kilo hertz at 9:25 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
45s? We used to take turns cranking the Victrola.
posted by fixedgear at 9:28 AM on January 22, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by fixedgear at 9:28 AM on January 22, 2011 [3 favorites]
We need to decide which room Metafilter will be in! Let's adopt Nelson's idea: MeFi.
posted by Fillus at 9:31 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by Fillus at 9:31 AM on January 22, 2011
acrasis: Do I have to be the one to say this? Do I have to be the old fogey? I used to invite friends over to the house and play 45s on the phonograph, and we'd all listen to the same thing.
Some of my favorite memories are sitting around stereo with some friends playing records for each other and talking about music. Sadly, most of those friends have moved to other cities and when we manage to get together there isn't nearly enough time to dedicate to having a few beers and playing records for each other. This isn't the same, but it at least has some of the same elements.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 9:31 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Some of my favorite memories are sitting around stereo with some friends playing records for each other and talking about music. Sadly, most of those friends have moved to other cities and when we manage to get together there isn't nearly enough time to dedicate to having a few beers and playing records for each other. This isn't the same, but it at least has some of the same elements.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 9:31 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Do I have to be the one to say this? Do I have to be the old fogey? I used to invite friends over to the house and play 45s on the phonograph, and we'd all listen to the same thing.
In my day, we all lugged our own "ghetto" blasters with us and simultaneously played competing cassettes as loud as possible. I have particularly fond memories of a warm June evening in 1982 -- Queen, Jethro Tull, Throbbing Gristle and Malcolm McLaren all howling away in perfect cacophony.
I'm sure the MDA helped.
posted by philip-random at 9:32 AM on January 22, 2011 [5 favorites]
In my day, we all lugged our own "ghetto" blasters with us and simultaneously played competing cassettes as loud as possible. I have particularly fond memories of a warm June evening in 1982 -- Queen, Jethro Tull, Throbbing Gristle and Malcolm McLaren all howling away in perfect cacophony.
I'm sure the MDA helped.
posted by philip-random at 9:32 AM on January 22, 2011 [5 favorites]
I used to have to dodge the wolves while travelling to the neighboring tribe so they could listen to me rhythmically thump my chest.
But the sound was lossless.
posted by Joe Beese at 9:32 AM on January 22, 2011 [23 favorites]
But the sound was lossless.
posted by Joe Beese at 9:32 AM on January 22, 2011 [23 favorites]
The system doesn't scale well to 10+ people. The streaming seems to sort of work. But the social design is missing. In MeFi we've already got people removing each other's music halfway through, and people asking for voting systems, etc. Not a criticism of the site, it's really cool, just an observation that what may work for a small community may not for a larger one. Let's see how long I am Sitting in a Room lasts this play. (Update: about 45 seconds.)
MeFi wasn't my idea, it's right in the original post.
posted by Nelson at 9:44 AM on January 22, 2011 [2 favorites]
MeFi wasn't my idea, it's right in the original post.
posted by Nelson at 9:44 AM on January 22, 2011 [2 favorites]
The unanimous removal ability sucks.
posted by Flunkie at 9:47 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Flunkie at 9:47 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
The unilateral removal ability sucks.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 9:49 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by James Scott-Brown at 9:49 AM on January 22, 2011
imo, it's just fucking rude to take off someone else's song. Completely inexcusable.
posted by empath at 9:50 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by empath at 9:50 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Yes, sorry, that's what I meant.
posted by Flunkie at 9:50 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Flunkie at 9:50 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Removing each other's music? I don't see a way for that to happen. Loading a new track doesn't automatically cut off what's playing -- it seems to just be added to a queue. What do you mean?
(Totally agree that some social design could really improve this site, BTW, but it's a side project for one person, so I think we'll have to wait for a bigger organization to steal this idea to get all the bells and whistle.)
ALSO! Note that the room names are case-sensitive. MeFi just has a few folks in it currently, whereas mefi is much more crowded.
posted by slappy_pinchbottom at 9:52 AM on January 22, 2011
(Totally agree that some social design could really improve this site, BTW, but it's a side project for one person, so I think we'll have to wait for a bigger organization to steal this idea to get all the bells and whistle.)
ALSO! Note that the room names are case-sensitive. MeFi just has a few folks in it currently, whereas mefi is much more crowded.
posted by slappy_pinchbottom at 9:52 AM on January 22, 2011
I have a feeling this will work a bit better when there's less of a spotlight on a given room. Being able to just create a nonce room and invite a few friends in as an offhand thing will probably work very well.
posted by cortex at 9:53 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by cortex at 9:53 AM on January 22, 2011
Removing each other's music? I don't see a way for that to happen. Loading a new track doesn't automatically cut off what's playing -- it seems to just be added to a queue. What do you mean?If you hover over a song, a "Remove" link appears. And jerks use it.
posted by Flunkie at 9:54 AM on January 22, 2011
Removing each other's music? I don't see a way for that to happen. Loading a new track doesn't automatically cut off what's playing -- it seems to just be added to a queue. What do you mean?
Anybody can just click on a song to stop it.
posted by empath at 9:55 AM on January 22, 2011
Anybody can just click on a song to stop it.
posted by empath at 9:55 AM on January 22, 2011
Anybody can also play shitty music that sucks and STEPS HAVE TO BE TAKEN.
posted by ND¢ at 9:57 AM on January 22, 2011 [6 favorites]
posted by ND¢ at 9:57 AM on January 22, 2011 [6 favorites]
Well, I'm getting the usual "Waiting for ..." and then almost immediately "Stopped" when I open the "A room called mefi is right here" link. I'm hoping that their server is just overloaded and this isn't some sort of Minority Report type thing.
posted by vapidave at 9:57 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by vapidave at 9:57 AM on January 22, 2011
Yeah, imagine if everyone on metafilter could just remove comments they don't like.
posted by empath at 9:57 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by empath at 9:57 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Here was my resolution to the 'he is playing a song that sucks' problem.
I hit the big fucking mute button at the top of the page.
posted by empath at 9:58 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
I hit the big fucking mute button at the top of the page.
posted by empath at 9:58 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Anybody can also play shitty music that sucks and STEPS HAVE TO BE TAKEN.Such as turning on your own stereo.
In all seriousness, this site would greatly improve by merely adding a (say) 60% vote for removal, rather than unilateral removal.
posted by Flunkie at 10:00 AM on January 22, 2011
I'm getting flashbacks to doing to MetaChat radio.
Anyone want to listen to my "I hate watercoloring with a firey passion" mega-session?
posted by The Whelk at 10:01 AM on January 22, 2011 [2 favorites]
Anyone want to listen to my "I hate watercoloring with a firey passion" mega-session?
posted by The Whelk at 10:01 AM on January 22, 2011 [2 favorites]
Also I used to do something like this (using streaming radio stations and exploiting the new multitasking computers) for the purposes of, ahem, interacting with women online back in the IRC days.
I regret to say that some of my things that used to work back then don't work as well anymore and some things that barely functioned back then work well now.
posted by vapidave at 10:11 AM on January 22, 2011
I regret to say that some of my things that used to work back then don't work as well anymore and some things that barely functioned back then work well now.
posted by vapidave at 10:11 AM on January 22, 2011
First person to get a site like that up with proper social options, bandwidth, and some viral marketing is gonna be a multimillionaire.
Or in jail for Imaginary Property rights infrigement.
posted by jet_manifesto at 10:11 AM on January 22, 2011
Or in jail for Imaginary Property rights infrigement.
posted by jet_manifesto at 10:11 AM on January 22, 2011
Yeah, imagine if everyone on metafilter could just remove comments they don't like.
Oh, the silence! The silence!
posted by yeloson at 10:15 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Oh, the silence! The silence!
posted by yeloson at 10:15 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
I approve of this new website.
posted by palacewalls at 10:17 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by palacewalls at 10:17 AM on January 22, 2011
The whole "playing music for each other's enjoyment" scene is one of the things I really like about Second Life. Bonus points for actually sort of being in a room together and not being able to break someone else's playlist.
This is pretty neat, though, and I know I'd abuse it like crazy if it were tacked onto an IM.
posted by byanyothername at 10:19 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
This is pretty neat, though, and I know I'd abuse it like crazy if it were tacked onto an IM.
posted by byanyothername at 10:19 AM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Neat idea but seems to more of a proof-of-concept than a real tool.
posted by octothorpe at 10:23 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by octothorpe at 10:23 AM on January 22, 2011
I'm liking this. I put together a proof-of-concept thing called Fffmusic a few years ago based on some similar ideas, figuring that the Amazon S3 service would be a good sharing platform with its various privacy settings. Never went so far as this UI, though!
posted by migurski at 10:30 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by migurski at 10:30 AM on January 22, 2011
The whole "playing music for each other's enjoyment" scene is one of the things I really like about Second Life.
And now you can do it minecraft, too, but you have to program it yourself and it takes 5 hours to do 2 bars.
posted by empath at 10:31 AM on January 22, 2011
And now you can do it minecraft, too, but you have to program it yourself and it takes 5 hours to do 2 bars.
posted by empath at 10:31 AM on January 22, 2011
45s? We used to take turns cranking the Victrola. --- Victrola? You had it easy. We had to settle for a chamber quartet.
posted by crunchland at 10:35 AM on January 22, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by crunchland at 10:35 AM on January 22, 2011 [3 favorites]
Me and some friend on another forum got a nice little room going. Once you get a long enough queue, songs late in the list have time to fully load, and that becomes enjoyable. And so far no one has made any unilateral deletes.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 10:43 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 10:43 AM on January 22, 2011
That was fun while it lasted. Someone came in and deleted all our songs.
posted by arcticwoman at 10:43 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by arcticwoman at 10:43 AM on January 22, 2011
That anyone can delete items in the queue totally blows.
posted by crunchland at 10:44 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by crunchland at 10:44 AM on January 22, 2011
Yea, that 'feature' doesn't really scale.
posted by octothorpe at 10:45 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by octothorpe at 10:45 AM on January 22, 2011
Do I have to be the one to say this? Do I have to be the old fogey? I used to invite friends over to the house and play 45s on the phonograph, and we'd all listen to the same thing.
Wow, I'm young. This is outside my purview. I have to ask - what's a house?
posted by Sticherbeast at 10:47 AM on January 22, 2011 [3 favorites]
Wow, I'm young. This is outside my purview. I have to ask - what's a house?
posted by Sticherbeast at 10:47 AM on January 22, 2011 [3 favorites]
Thanks for this. It's pretty cool when some asswipe to tries to ruin it. Feature requested: steel-toed boot to the taint.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 10:48 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 10:48 AM on January 22, 2011
Did it just freeze up totally for anybody else? After the Enya song?
posted by Flunkie at 10:48 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by Flunkie at 10:48 AM on January 22, 2011
Was that someone's calculated dickery or did the room just explode from overstuffing?
posted by mintcake! at 10:49 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by mintcake! at 10:49 AM on January 22, 2011
I think we killed it.
posted by octothorpe at 10:49 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by octothorpe at 10:49 AM on January 22, 2011
And mefi room is dead. And someone is a jerk for removing everyone else's song. Yeah, some moderation would be awesome...
posted by maryr at 10:49 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by maryr at 10:49 AM on January 22, 2011
That was fun while it lasted. Someone came in and deleted all our songs.
the RIAA? they're not 'your' songs. do you think you own your culture? no, it's strictly about the rents.
posted by ennui.bz at 10:50 AM on January 22, 2011
the RIAA? they're not 'your' songs. do you think you own your culture? no, it's strictly about the rents.
posted by ennui.bz at 10:50 AM on January 22, 2011
the RIAA? they're not 'your' songs.
And you can tell everybody this is your song
It may be quite simple but now that it's done
I hope you don't mind
posted by Sticherbeast at 10:52 AM on January 22, 2011 [2 favorites]
And you can tell everybody this is your song
It may be quite simple but now that it's done
I hope you don't mind
posted by Sticherbeast at 10:52 AM on January 22, 2011 [2 favorites]
the RIAA? they're not 'your' songs. do you think you own your culture? no, it's strictly about the rents.
Uh, thanks for that. I meant some asshole came in and "removed" all the songs "we" had put in "queue," but whatever, what you said.
posted by arcticwoman at 10:52 AM on January 22, 2011
Uh, thanks for that. I meant some asshole came in and "removed" all the songs "we" had put in "queue," but whatever, what you said.
posted by arcticwoman at 10:52 AM on January 22, 2011
I don't know if I'm the one who destroyed the queue, but I did click remove a few times before I realized that it got rid of the song for everyone in the room. I should read the instructions. :/
posted by Mister Cheese at 10:53 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by Mister Cheese at 10:53 AM on January 22, 2011
No, I went as Mister Cheese.
posted by Mister Cheese at 10:58 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by Mister Cheese at 10:58 AM on January 22, 2011
I believe that Charming Human was the one who cancelled en masse.
posted by Flunkie at 11:00 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by Flunkie at 11:00 AM on January 22, 2011
Phew! Okay, now I will go back and try to listen.
posted by Mister Cheese at 11:01 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by Mister Cheese at 11:01 AM on January 22, 2011
This is not working at all for me.
posted by waitingtoderail at 11:37 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by waitingtoderail at 11:37 AM on January 22, 2011
I think songs are less likely to "hiccup" after all songs have fully uploaded in the queue. At the same time, having a long queue seems key to having all of them load properly.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:40 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:40 AM on January 22, 2011
Well, all I see is the record player at the top and the text and "you" and "chat" boxes on the right. None of the other stuff shown in the images on his blog.
posted by waitingtoderail at 11:55 AM on January 22, 2011
posted by waitingtoderail at 11:55 AM on January 22, 2011
It's still not working for me, perhaps they've throttled down access to certain areas so their server doesn't burst into flames. I do like that they show a turntable with a balancer though.
posted by vapidave at 12:01 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by vapidave at 12:01 PM on January 22, 2011
how about only the poster can remove a cut, but in chat anyone can ask the poster to remove the song.
posted by elmaddog at 12:11 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by elmaddog at 12:11 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
I like the 60% voting off idea (though no one should know how or whether the other people have voted). There should also be some info about how long the song is going to be. That might help control people's temptation to remove it.
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 12:18 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 12:18 PM on January 22, 2011
Was really cutting in and out for me. I think it would be better for a smaller group of people.
It's a cool idea.
But it kind of reminds me of going to parties in high school and a few guys would always be competing at the stereo, "hey I got this really great tape" "dude, put on my tape!" and it was always more about basking in the glow of their awesome mixtape-making abilities than any kind of fun music enjoyment.
posted by chococat at 12:20 PM on January 22, 2011
It's a cool idea.
But it kind of reminds me of going to parties in high school and a few guys would always be competing at the stereo, "hey I got this really great tape" "dude, put on my tape!" and it was always more about basking in the glow of their awesome mixtape-making abilities than any kind of fun music enjoyment.
posted by chococat at 12:20 PM on January 22, 2011
Oops--I just removed a song. I didn't mean to--it was glitching on me and I thought "remove" just meant "remove from my queue" or some such. Apologies to whoever put up the nice song with the lyrics "we want to be loved by you" (I think). *shoots self in face*
posted by Beardman at 12:24 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by Beardman at 12:24 PM on January 22, 2011
It was my song: Robots, by Dan Mangan. You're forgiven, clearly there is an issue with the interface.
posted by arcticwoman at 12:27 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by arcticwoman at 12:27 PM on January 22, 2011
Help, I can't get this thing to work at all. Using latest firefox on Win 7. Any help out there?
Yes, I am stupid, but thanks anyway.
posted by charlesminus at 12:29 PM on January 22, 2011
Yes, I am stupid, but thanks anyway.
posted by charlesminus at 12:29 PM on January 22, 2011
I had trouble with it in Firefox. Switched to Chrome and it works, apparently, as well as it's going to for anyone.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 12:37 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 12:37 PM on January 22, 2011
That room already needs its own MeTa equivalent.
posted by Beardman at 12:46 PM on January 22, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by Beardman at 12:46 PM on January 22, 2011 [4 favorites]
The Mefi site seems to be working fine now. Hope others can get in soon - it's a lot of fun!
posted by garnetgirl at 12:52 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by garnetgirl at 12:52 PM on January 22, 2011
Seriously, would MeFi turn into that if we didn't have jessamyn and cortex? *shudder*
Just enjoy the music, folks. You don't have to be so hands-on about it. Waaaay too much pent-up aggression, go punch a pillow or something.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 12:53 PM on January 22, 2011
Just enjoy the music, folks. You don't have to be so hands-on about it. Waaaay too much pent-up aggression, go punch a pillow or something.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 12:53 PM on January 22, 2011
Definitely seems to work better on Chrome than on Firefox.
Also, even though there are 20+ people in the room, it looks like there's still only a few people actually using it. I'm sure that slows things down quite a bit.
posted by roll truck roll at 12:55 PM on January 22, 2011
Also, even though there are 20+ people in the room, it looks like there's still only a few people actually using it. I'm sure that slows things down quite a bit.
posted by roll truck roll at 12:55 PM on January 22, 2011
Sorry, I deleted something at one point by accident trying to hear anything :(
It was probably overloaded?
posted by tjenks at 12:57 PM on January 22, 2011
It was probably overloaded?
posted by tjenks at 12:57 PM on January 22, 2011
This'll be great if it can adjust to the bandwidth issues; my god, the music is stuttery.
posted by ChrisR at 1:05 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by ChrisR at 1:05 PM on January 22, 2011
roll truck roll, we've been in the kiddie pool all this time! MeFi and mefi are different rooms. There's lots of people in the latter. I was wondering where all that pent-up aggression was.
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 1:07 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 1:07 PM on January 22, 2011
roll truck roll I was there several times in the "smaller" room, and the chat interface wasn't doing anything. The other one is packed with lots of removals, complaints, skipping tracks, and the usual spirited banter.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 1:12 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 1:12 PM on January 22, 2011
I think it died. The big mefi room seems to be gone.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 1:20 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 1:20 PM on January 22, 2011
Oh, after ten reloads or so, it's back. Definitely beta software.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 1:20 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 1:20 PM on January 22, 2011
Hmm, neat idea, sounds similar to MixApp. (Though you have to be Facebook friends with your co-listeners in MixApp.)
posted by rivenwanderer at 1:30 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by rivenwanderer at 1:30 PM on January 22, 2011
I loaded up some nina simone but my poor little system is having issues.
posted by cashman at 1:47 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by cashman at 1:47 PM on January 22, 2011
"Do I have to be the one to say this? Do I have to be the old fogey? I used to invite friends over to the house and play 45s on the phonograph, and we'd all listen to the same thing."
Fortunately, you can still do that.
posted by Eideteker at 2:13 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Fortunately, you can still do that.
posted by Eideteker at 2:13 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
Looks like it's really borked now.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 2:20 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 2:20 PM on January 22, 2011
"Error rendering template: Error: EMFILE, Too many open files 'templates/main.html'"
DON'T MAKE ME LISTEN TO MY OWN MUSIC COLLECTION
posted by Flunkie at 2:20 PM on January 22, 2011
DON'T MAKE ME LISTEN TO MY OWN MUSIC COLLECTION
posted by Flunkie at 2:20 PM on January 22, 2011
Uh oh, I'm getting the following error all of a sudden when trying to reload: Error rendering template: Error: EMFILE, Too many open files 'templates/main.html'
posted by maryr at 2:20 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by maryr at 2:20 PM on January 22, 2011
Same here maryr. For like ten minutes. I think the server crashed.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 2:22 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 2:22 PM on January 22, 2011
I don't know how some of you are getting back in. I'm still getting that EMFILE error. Both in the mefi room and on the home page.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 2:28 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 2:28 PM on January 22, 2011
I think we killed the server :(
It was fun while it lasted. Thanks for all the great music, everyone!
posted by narwhal bacon at 2:34 PM on January 22, 2011
It was fun while it lasted. Thanks for all the great music, everyone!
posted by narwhal bacon at 2:34 PM on January 22, 2011
Very cool. Chat not working for me, though. I hereby swear never to remove any music that I haven't uploaded myself. That would be very rude.
posted by Splunge at 2:59 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by Splunge at 2:59 PM on January 22, 2011
I was able to log on for the first time and immediately have discovered John Hiatt is NOT something I enjoy. So I learned something new today.
posted by Windigo at 3:29 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by Windigo at 3:29 PM on January 22, 2011
Can get on but it appears to be totally borked. No sound no chat no adding songs.
posted by Xurando at 4:12 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by Xurando at 4:12 PM on January 22, 2011
Yeah I found I couldn't add songs, so I refreshed, and now I can't get back on.
posted by catwash at 4:13 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by catwash at 4:13 PM on January 22, 2011
Yeah, I was on but it's dead for now suddenly as well.
But for the 30-40 minutes it was working, it was unofficially my most favorite thing ever.
MetaFilter chatting with music about music from the comfort of my home office on a cold winter's night is not something I knew I wanted so badly until I had it taken away from me.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 4:15 PM on January 22, 2011
But for the 30-40 minutes it was working, it was unofficially my most favorite thing ever.
MetaFilter chatting with music about music from the comfort of my home office on a cold winter's night is not something I knew I wanted so badly until I had it taken away from me.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 4:15 PM on January 22, 2011
Of course. The minute my song is about to play it crashes for good. Too bad, because it was working really well until just now.
posted by arcticwoman at 4:16 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by arcticwoman at 4:16 PM on January 22, 2011
........especially cuz my music is awesome and no one got to listen to the awesomeness and then decide that I must also be an awesome person, based on the the awesome awesomeness of my music selections.
posted by Windigo at 4:18 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Windigo at 4:18 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
I spent most of the day on there but it looks like it's been beaten off the internet for a while. I'll come back later and see if it's up again. It's been fun! You folks have great taste in music!
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 4:18 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 4:18 PM on January 22, 2011
Slowing down on me again, but at least Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings are playing. Only sucky thing is there's no use adding a song because it'll be 3 days before it plays. I kind of wished it limited you to uploading one song per hour or some time frame, based on the users. I see one person with 10 songs on deck.
posted by cashman at 5:05 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by cashman at 5:05 PM on January 22, 2011
The mefi room so far is a great place to find music in genres I wouldn't normally look at. This is a nice site; hope it stays up.
posted by majonesing at 5:06 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by majonesing at 5:06 PM on January 22, 2011
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is fucking GENIUS!!!!!!
posted by Lutoslawski at 5:18 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by Lutoslawski at 5:18 PM on January 22, 2011
That was a two hours well-spent.
posted by Rory Marinich at 5:27 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by Rory Marinich at 5:27 PM on January 22, 2011
I love you guys, but I'm so glad there's a mute button for some of the stuff you are sharing.
posted by Windigo at 5:58 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by Windigo at 5:58 PM on January 22, 2011
This is pretty cool, although it stalled Firefox (3.6.12 Windows XP SP2).
posted by grouse at 6:00 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by grouse at 6:00 PM on January 22, 2011 [1 favorite]
I was really enjoying it until the inevitable removal of all songs started to occur. Boo-urns!That's periodic. It's not clear to me whether it's actually dickishness, or just not understanding that removing a song affects everyone else, but pointing it out to the person who does it seems to stop it, generally speaking, so I'm leaning towards "just not understanding".
posted by Flunkie at 6:47 PM on January 22, 2011
This is so great.
posted by defenestration at 6:58 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by defenestration at 6:58 PM on January 22, 2011
I just uploaded a song my dad wrote in the early 1960's, Come Climb My Cupcake Tree. It doesn't really fit in but I hope you like it anyway.
posted by nickyskye at 7:09 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by nickyskye at 7:09 PM on January 22, 2011
That was a fun song, nickyskye!
And I don't think anyone should worry about something "not fitting in".
posted by Flunkie at 7:20 PM on January 22, 2011 [2 favorites]
And I don't think anyone should worry about something "not fitting in".
posted by Flunkie at 7:20 PM on January 22, 2011 [2 favorites]
I have a feeling this will work a bit better when there's less of a spotlight on a given room. Being able to just create a nonce room and invite a few friends in as an offhand thing will probably work very well.
I wouldn't want to be in that gang!
or
What if they've all gone to the moon?
posted by fullerine at 9:09 PM on January 22, 2011
I wouldn't want to be in that gang!
or
What if they've all gone to the moon?
posted by fullerine at 9:09 PM on January 22, 2011
Great idea, but would be a lot more fun if the implementation weren't so awful. Case in point: submitted a track, waited 90 minutes for it to come around... and it didn't play, because it was an .m4a file. Sighed, downloaded an .mp3 copy, uploaded that, waited two hours for it to come up... and it was deleted by a douchebag troll right before it started.
Nice music in the meantime, though.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:38 PM on January 22, 2011
Nice music in the meantime, though.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:38 PM on January 22, 2011
(The troll, btw, was named "karma is a fucking bitch" and only deleted mine before disappearing. Which is a little WTF, since I hadn't removed a single song myself the whole time I was in the room. *shrug*)
posted by Rhaomi at 11:46 PM on January 22, 2011
posted by Rhaomi at 11:46 PM on January 22, 2011
What a cool idea. The mefi room is working for me, though it's slowing my computer down a bit and chat doesn't seem to be working right.
posted by Gordafarin at 4:05 AM on January 23, 2011
posted by Gordafarin at 4:05 AM on January 23, 2011
This is good... More listeners than wannabe deejays though, it seems.
(And yeah, removing a track should require 3 votes or 50% or something.)
posted by dickasso at 4:20 AM on January 23, 2011
(And yeah, removing a track should require 3 votes or 50% or something.)
posted by dickasso at 4:20 AM on January 23, 2011
oh this is totally awesome! what fun listening to other people's music. Like going to a party where we all bring our ipods. I don't mind hearing a songs that I don't like. It's uncool to remove other people's stuff, but I think it's useful if you have a friend or two getting together to talk and hang out on the internet.
posted by bluefly at 7:25 AM on January 23, 2011
posted by bluefly at 7:25 AM on January 23, 2011
I mean the site is useful, removing other people's songs sucks!
posted by bluefly at 7:26 AM on January 23, 2011
posted by bluefly at 7:26 AM on January 23, 2011
I spent at least 3 hours if not more listening and adding music yesterday in the mefi room. I love this thing.
posted by Memo at 8:41 AM on January 23, 2011
posted by Memo at 8:41 AM on January 23, 2011
Much better than expected. Making my day. Kind of addictive though.
posted by conrad53 at 8:51 AM on January 23, 2011
posted by conrad53 at 8:51 AM on January 23, 2011
Room's down for me again. I'll keep trying in a few minutes.
posted by arcticwoman at 9:04 AM on January 23, 2011
posted by arcticwoman at 9:04 AM on January 23, 2011
I heard a ton of great stuff yesterday - kept it on in the background for a few hours and actually chatted a bit before I passed out for the evening. It was swell, but it really, really needs a big "hey, the delete button removes songs for EVERYONE" disclaimer at the top, or each room needs the ability to set its own rules. People removing tracks, whether they had just shown up and hadn't figured it out or were simply trolling, was maddening.
posted by mintcake! at 9:13 AM on January 23, 2011
posted by mintcake! at 9:13 AM on January 23, 2011
Very nice. To repeat what I said over on MeCha, this could become my favorite radio station. Both for a good selection of music and also it hits the sweet spot for sociability. Plenty enough people that you can just sit back and listen without interacting when you want, but few enough people that when you do want to interact, there's some real connection between people.
Hope it can scale, and survive any music industry lawyering.
As for social features...rather than voting on removal, I'd be pretty keen on having the option of voting "I want to hear this one sooner!" Move stuff that everyone is keen to hear to the top of the queue, push the rest downwards.
Because I'm not going to be able to sit here all day listening.
posted by philipy at 9:48 AM on January 23, 2011
Hope it can scale, and survive any music industry lawyering.
As for social features...rather than voting on removal, I'd be pretty keen on having the option of voting "I want to hear this one sooner!" Move stuff that everyone is keen to hear to the top of the queue, push the rest downwards.
Because I'm not going to be able to sit here all day listening.
posted by philipy at 9:48 AM on January 23, 2011
Is anyone else having trouble accessing this from Firefox, and in particular accessing from a Mac? I'm having a deuce of a time getting a room going because the only browser it wants to play any kind of nice with seems to be Chrome.
Also, idly brainstorming wondering, do you suppose that pop-up blockers and other add-ons are what's causing these issues? possible solutions would be most welcome.
posted by louche mustachio at 11:13 AM on January 23, 2011
Also, idly brainstorming wondering, do you suppose that pop-up blockers and other add-ons are what's causing these issues? possible solutions would be most welcome.
posted by louche mustachio at 11:13 AM on January 23, 2011
(if you feel like coming to a side room, go to "frumious" - that's the station I have going now. you will probably hear a lot of, uh, Captain Beefheart and stuff.)
posted by louche mustachio at 11:15 AM on January 23, 2011
posted by louche mustachio at 11:15 AM on January 23, 2011
Louche - I'm using Firefox on a Mac and having no problems (aside from the site outages). You may just have had bad timing.
posted by maryr at 11:36 AM on January 23, 2011
posted by maryr at 11:36 AM on January 23, 2011
I've been using Firefox on a PC, and can't get it to do diddly.
Chrome works fine for me. (Except for when the whole thing crashes, of course.)
I'm asking for a friend with an UhMAAAAHHHZing* music collection who can't seem to get it to play nice with his Mac. I told to try downloading Chrome.
It doesn't seem to be consistent though, which is why I'm wondering if there are any Firefox add-ons that block the necessary applications.
*He has ALL THE JAZZ. All of it. Every jazz.
posted by louche mustachio at 11:52 AM on January 23, 2011
Chrome works fine for me. (Except for when the whole thing crashes, of course.)
I'm asking for a friend with an UhMAAAAHHHZing* music collection who can't seem to get it to play nice with his Mac. I told to try downloading Chrome.
It doesn't seem to be consistent though, which is why I'm wondering if there are any Firefox add-ons that block the necessary applications.
*He has ALL THE JAZZ. All of it. Every jazz.
posted by louche mustachio at 11:52 AM on January 23, 2011
it appears i am now the owner of the 'frumious' room.
posted by Windigo at 11:53 AM on January 23, 2011
posted by Windigo at 11:53 AM on January 23, 2011
Whelk - it overloads sometimes. Just keep hitting f5 once in a while and sooner or later your room will load correctly.
posted by Windigo at 12:05 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by Windigo at 12:05 PM on January 23, 2011
Okay so it works in Chrome.
I'm in http://listeningroom.fettig.net/room/Whelkonia/ taking requests.
posted by The Whelk at 12:05 PM on January 23, 2011
I'm in http://listeningroom.fettig.net/room/Whelkonia/ taking requests.
posted by The Whelk at 12:05 PM on January 23, 2011
I'm on a French Language music kick right now, BTW.
posted by The Whelk at 12:06 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by The Whelk at 12:06 PM on January 23, 2011
Yeah, sorry, it keeps getting overloaded.
But I will be back.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:18 PM on January 23, 2011
But I will be back.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:18 PM on January 23, 2011
wow it somehow killed my router
(kidding)
Restarting this, Whelkonia away!
posted by The Whelk at 12:20 PM on January 23, 2011
(kidding)
Restarting this, Whelkonia away!
posted by The Whelk at 12:20 PM on January 23, 2011
This is cool, but it died on me... I heard one song, and then nothing; I refreshed a few times, but no cigar, and then it just wouldn't load the page at all. *sad* I'm also trying out FF 4, so I don't know if it's related to that. If anyone is having success w/FF 4, let me know.
posted by taz at 1:33 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by taz at 1:33 PM on January 23, 2011
Working fine for me in regular old FF. Also: allow me to vouch for the disco freshness of Whelkonia.
posted by mintcake! at 1:38 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by mintcake! at 1:38 PM on January 23, 2011
Yeah, not for removing someone else's song of the same title so you can post your own. :(
posted by narwhal bacon at 6:31 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by narwhal bacon at 6:31 PM on January 23, 2011
my room seems to have developed a bit of a ... I can't say a meme, yet. An in-joke.
You know how it gives you a randomly generated name, and sometimes that name is (adjective) (animal)? People have picked that up and run with it.
We've been changing our names to things like Impeccably Dressed Rabbit, Adequate Cook Opossum, Drunk Dialing Wildebeest, I Can Stop Anytime I Want Baboon, MOM I'M JUST FINE JESUS Narwhal, Recently Divorced Hyrax... you get the idea.
I guess what I'm trying to say is i'm seriously addicted to this site rhinocerous.
posted by louche mustachio at 9:22 PM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]
You know how it gives you a randomly generated name, and sometimes that name is (adjective) (animal)? People have picked that up and run with it.
We've been changing our names to things like Impeccably Dressed Rabbit, Adequate Cook Opossum, Drunk Dialing Wildebeest, I Can Stop Anytime I Want Baboon, MOM I'M JUST FINE JESUS Narwhal, Recently Divorced Hyrax... you get the idea.
I guess what I'm trying to say is i'm seriously addicted to this site rhinocerous.
posted by louche mustachio at 9:22 PM on January 23, 2011 [4 favorites]
Okay, it's working in regular Firefox, so phooey — I have to choose between Panorama (formerly candy tabs) and Listening Room. Choosing Listening Room at the moment.
posted by taz at 10:30 PM on January 23, 2011
posted by taz at 10:30 PM on January 23, 2011
I've been having much more fun than I should be with something so limited and buggy, but thanks for the post. I also heard about another, supposedly more stable, similar web app called mumu player.
posted by p3t3 at 5:51 AM on January 24, 2011
posted by p3t3 at 5:51 AM on January 24, 2011
i popped into an empty frumious room, and it's filled up all sorts of jazz. Nice.
posted by Windigo at 3:03 PM on January 24, 2011
posted by Windigo at 3:03 PM on January 24, 2011
If you have Firebug, this will add track length to the side of the queue: http://pastebin.com/9i0CAGRY
posted by narwhal bacon at 3:06 PM on January 24, 2011
posted by narwhal bacon at 3:06 PM on January 24, 2011
Grar, listening room doesn't seem to be working for me anymore. It is a saddening affair.
posted by lizarrd at 8:51 AM on January 25, 2011
posted by lizarrd at 8:51 AM on January 25, 2011
It's been up and down since last night (it's 10:00am in my time zone now). Now there's an official message on the site. Looks like it's out of commission and scheduled to relaunch on the 28th (Friday). See you then?
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 9:06 AM on January 25, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 9:06 AM on January 25, 2011
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Hopefully some of the kinks are worked out when it comes back, so we can work The Kinks.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:47 PM on January 25, 2011
Hopefully some of the kinks are worked out when it comes back, so we can work The Kinks.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:47 PM on January 25, 2011
Hopefully there is a limit on the number of songs you can upload. I think 5 per hour is a good limit. Or some kind of queuing system that racks up songs and when one person uploads like 15 songs, it spaces them out.
posted by cashman at 1:01 PM on January 25, 2011
posted by cashman at 1:01 PM on January 25, 2011
Hmm, it seemed to me like most people were very respectful about not uploading too much at once or at least varying the amount, unless it was asked for...like the metal hour.
posted by lizarrd at 1:04 PM on January 25, 2011
posted by lizarrd at 1:04 PM on January 25, 2011
narwhal bacon: Could you package that up as a user script or a chrome extension? I don't have sufficient js-fu to pull that off trivially (although I suppose I could learn).
posted by ChrisR at 1:05 PM on January 25, 2011
posted by ChrisR at 1:05 PM on January 25, 2011
And yeah, I'll be there Friday. It's funny; this is the first instance of an online community I've run into (MeFi included, to some extent) that's broken me out of lurker-mode since, well, IRC. Over a decade ago.
I am, apparently, a recluse.
posted by ChrisR at 1:07 PM on January 25, 2011
I am, apparently, a recluse.
posted by ChrisR at 1:07 PM on January 25, 2011
I swear to god it crashed for good RIGHT WHEN MY SONG WAS ABOUT TO PLAY
*sulk*
posted by Windigo at 3:48 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
*sulk*
posted by Windigo at 3:48 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
do not worry it will be back up on the 28th. by the way i really think this is a good idea and maybe some local college DJ's who do not get to play the music they want as often as they want should take advantage of this website.
posted by Josuh42 at 10:03 PM on January 25, 2011
posted by Josuh42 at 10:03 PM on January 25, 2011
Mefites and music— my two favorite things together in one room! My own music collection seems so inadequate now… sigh.
posted by yaymukund at 1:52 PM on January 26, 2011
posted by yaymukund at 1:52 PM on January 26, 2011
For those of you who have been enjoying the room, it seems worthwhile to remind you that the MeFi CD Swap is coming up - think of it as a sort of snail mail version of ListeningRoom, only without the skipping and trolls removing songs mid-play (bastards).
posted by maryr at 4:36 PM on January 26, 2011
posted by maryr at 4:36 PM on January 26, 2011
Also, in the meanwhile you all might enjoy 8tracks.com. It's not quite the same, but I have enjoyed plenty of music I normally never would have heard.
posted by Windigo at 5:39 PM on January 26, 2011
posted by Windigo at 5:39 PM on January 26, 2011
If he doesn't put those features by Friday, I will work my butt off to make something available that's much easier than a copy-and-paste job.
I've been prepping for the return, so expect me there when it opens!
posted by narwhal bacon at 11:12 PM on January 26, 2011
I've been prepping for the return, so expect me there when it opens!
posted by narwhal bacon at 11:12 PM on January 26, 2011
Only a day to go!........holding breath......
I think I just traversed my mefi history to get to this page as sort of reality pinch to see if those three days of musical bliss were just a dream. I see familiar handles....comforting. See y'all soon.
posted by goodsignal at 8:41 PM on January 27, 2011
I think I just traversed my mefi history to get to this page as sort of reality pinch to see if those three days of musical bliss were just a dream. I see familiar handles....comforting. See y'all soon.
posted by goodsignal at 8:41 PM on January 27, 2011
Why you dead, Ricky?
posted by cashman at 8:06 AM on January 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by cashman at 8:06 AM on January 28, 2011 [2 favorites]
Come on Listening Room, don't hold out on me. I NEED MY FIX!
posted by Godwin Interjection at 8:19 AM on January 28, 2011
posted by Godwin Interjection at 8:19 AM on January 28, 2011
On the upside? None of the deletion trolls are getting to use it anyway... OR ARE THEY?!
posted by ChrisR at 8:50 AM on January 28, 2011
posted by ChrisR at 8:50 AM on January 28, 2011
NONONONONONONONO
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 9:06 AM on January 28, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 9:06 AM on January 28, 2011
It's over. I was thinking about muxtape (remember that?) yesterday and I started wondering if this site would go poof too.
posted by cashman at 9:09 AM on January 28, 2011
posted by cashman at 9:09 AM on January 28, 2011
ChrisR: "Bad news, possibly: Tweet, today"
Ironically, I got the Twitter whale when I followed the link.
posted by theichibun at 9:41 AM on January 28, 2011
Ironically, I got the Twitter whale when I followed the link.
posted by theichibun at 9:41 AM on January 28, 2011
cashman: "It's over. I was thinking about muxtape (remember that?) yesterday and I started wondering if this site would go poof too."
Ha, remember the legal version of Muxtape? That must not have lasted very long.
I'm a big fan of Opentape. Same functionality as Muxtape, but you host it on your own server.
posted by roll truck roll at 10:26 AM on January 28, 2011
Ha, remember the legal version of Muxtape? That must not have lasted very long.
I'm a big fan of Opentape. Same functionality as Muxtape, but you host it on your own server.
posted by roll truck roll at 10:26 AM on January 28, 2011
Here is the tweet:
Update on LR coming later today. Bad news short term, good news long term. Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love US copyright laws.
I'll say it again. The music industry is stupid if it shuts this down. I bought SO MUCH new music during the short time I was on the Listening Room. More than I have in the last FIVE YEARS.
Man, I hope the guy from Sleeper Co. was keeping a record of click throughs and referrals to Amazon
posted by jeanmari at 11:45 AM on January 28, 2011
Update on LR coming later today. Bad news short term, good news long term. Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love US copyright laws.
I'll say it again. The music industry is stupid if it shuts this down. I bought SO MUCH new music during the short time I was on the Listening Room. More than I have in the last FIVE YEARS.
Man, I hope the guy from Sleeper Co. was keeping a record of click throughs and referrals to Amazon
posted by jeanmari at 11:45 AM on January 28, 2011
I, too, purchased a bunch of songs while I used it! (as well as irritated people with my music tastes :P).
this is the first instance of an online community I've run into (MeFi included, to some extent) that's broken me out of lurker-mode
I felt that way as well. This is sad.
posted by bluefly at 12:20 PM on January 28, 2011
this is the first instance of an online community I've run into (MeFi included, to some extent) that's broken me out of lurker-mode
I felt that way as well. This is sad.
posted by bluefly at 12:20 PM on January 28, 2011
"Blog post in progress. Short version: I have a path to get licensing in place for LR, but need help from the community to make it happen."
posted by Rhaomi at 2:36 PM on January 28, 2011
posted by Rhaomi at 2:36 PM on January 28, 2011
Nthing the music-buying. I know I popped out of the room at least twice with the message "OMG going to Discogs brb."
It's not a download site, and it's lame to treat it that way.
posted by louche mustachio at 3:50 PM on January 28, 2011
It's not a download site, and it's lame to treat it that way.
posted by louche mustachio at 3:50 PM on January 28, 2011
I was so looking forward to having Listening Room to further my musical collection. Oh well, hopefully it will turn out well.
posted by lizarrd at 4:31 PM on January 28, 2011
posted by lizarrd at 4:31 PM on January 28, 2011
I imagine he's going to get licensed as an 'internet radio station'
posted by empath at 6:41 PM on January 28, 2011
posted by empath at 6:41 PM on January 28, 2011
cashman: "Aaaany minute now."
So impatient -- that was only posted nine minutes ago!
But really, what is it with Twitter's fucked-up timestamps? Looking at his main page, that tweet says "nine minutes ago" at twitter.com/SleeperCo, "three hours ago" at twitter.com/SleeperCo/ (with a blackslash at the end), "two minutes ago" on a phone, "seven hours ago" again on an iPod (mobile version), etc. And like half the time I view someone's page, the latest message is "less than ten seconds ago." WTF Twitter?
posted by Rhaomi at 9:20 PM on January 28, 2011
So impatient -- that was only posted nine minutes ago!
But really, what is it with Twitter's fucked-up timestamps? Looking at his main page, that tweet says "nine minutes ago" at twitter.com/SleeperCo, "three hours ago" at twitter.com/SleeperCo/ (with a blackslash at the end), "two minutes ago" on a phone, "seven hours ago" again on an iPod (mobile version), etc. And like half the time I view someone's page, the latest message is "less than ten seconds ago." WTF Twitter?
posted by Rhaomi at 9:20 PM on January 28, 2011
Aw geez I was looking forward to digging some mefites' tunes this evening. If anyone is interested, mumuplayer.com/metafilter is up and running now.
posted by Balonious Assault at 9:27 PM on January 28, 2011
posted by Balonious Assault at 9:27 PM on January 28, 2011
But really, what is it with Twitter's fucked-up timestamps?
It really is annoying. Just go to the actual tweet to see how long ago it was really posted. It's the only way (besides nuking it from orbit) to be sure.
posted by cashman at 9:45 PM on January 28, 2011
It really is annoying. Just go to the actual tweet to see how long ago it was really posted. It's the only way (besides nuking it from orbit) to be sure.
posted by cashman at 9:45 PM on January 28, 2011
mumuplayer is no Listening Room, but it'll do in a pinch.
posted by narwhal bacon at 10:26 PM on January 28, 2011
posted by narwhal bacon at 10:26 PM on January 28, 2011
narwhal bacon: "blog post is up."
posted by Rhaomi at 11:00 PM on January 28, 2011
Listening Room is not a tool for pirating music. It’s designed to be able to share music with other people without sharing files with them – they get a chance to hear stuff they don’t own, and then if they like it they can buy their own copy. So I don’t think it’s any kind of threat to the music industry, and I haven’t had anyone in the music industry contact me to complain, much less make legal threats.Ugh, chilling effects. I wish he had at least tried to wing it under the DMCA safe harbor provisions until challenged rather than voluntarily hamstringing the service like this up front. Then again, it's not my service to run. Still, this sounds significantly less fun.
That said, the fact is that Listening Room involves streaming music over the Internet, and according to US copyright laws you need additional permission from the copyright holder to do that. There are ways to try to avoid this issue, including operating under the DMCA safe harbor provision and pretending/hoping there’s no copyrighted material on your service until a copyright holder notifies you of a violation. But I believe the right thing to do here is to respect the spirit of the law
[...]
There are limitations on how many times you can play songs from the same artist or album within a short time period
[...]
you’re not allowed to publish a schedule of exactly when a song or artist is going to be played. Honoring this will require changing the Listening Room queue UI a bit.
[...]
Before music can play in a room, the room will need song credits. Song credits come from users, who buy them and then contribute them to the room [...] So, for example, if you have 10 people in a room and everybody kicks in one credit, you can all listen to 10 songs.
[...]
I’m going to have a fundraiser, starting next week, to raise $50,000 to pay the initial licensing costs for Listening Room.
posted by Rhaomi at 11:00 PM on January 28, 2011
50 grand? Unbelievable. Couldn't he limit the number of rooms that can be created, at least until he's got some cash accumulated from the song credits? I don't know what the scale of the number of users he's had has been, but I do know that a lot of people will flee to other services once it's no longer free. Color me pessimistic, but this doesn't sound entirely feasible.
posted by Gordafarin at 3:36 AM on January 29, 2011
posted by Gordafarin at 3:36 AM on January 29, 2011
I vote for a LR knock-off to be built and added on to Metafilter as a feature available to logged-in members. Since it would be closed to the general public, we could hopefully fly it under the radar of copyright nazis, and if not, you'd only have to license one channel. Kinda doubt it will happen, but would be awesome if it did!
posted by p3t3 at 3:46 AM on January 29, 2011
posted by p3t3 at 3:46 AM on January 29, 2011
The answer is no.
I vote we write an open source version of this so I can put it on my own server.
posted by empath at 5:21 AM on January 29, 2011
I vote we write an open source version of this so I can put it on my own server.
posted by empath at 5:21 AM on January 29, 2011
He talks about song credits which cost "a few cents" and with one credit enough to play a song to the entire room. If "few" say 3c, that might just fly. If it means 30c I can't see it.
An open source alternative sounds attractive, but I don't know if it just wouldn't run into the same legal issues.
I must admit I treated the thing as a radio station I could dip in and out of, and I'm not into paying anything for listening to radio. I wonder if some kind of ad model or some affiliate scheme whereby he can get a percentage of anything that people decided to buy would work for him. (A la Spotify.)
posted by philipy at 6:17 AM on January 29, 2011
An open source alternative sounds attractive, but I don't know if it just wouldn't run into the same legal issues.
I must admit I treated the thing as a radio station I could dip in and out of, and I'm not into paying anything for listening to radio. I wonder if some kind of ad model or some affiliate scheme whereby he can get a percentage of anything that people decided to buy would work for him. (A la Spotify.)
posted by philipy at 6:17 AM on January 29, 2011
An open source alternative sounds attractive, but I don't know if it just wouldn't run into the same legal issues.
You just set up a private server for your friends.
posted by empath at 6:23 AM on January 29, 2011
You just set up a private server for your friends.
posted by empath at 6:23 AM on January 29, 2011
I am disappoint. Even with being able to connect about a quarter of the time, even with the cut outs, even with the trollers deleting tunes from the queue ... I still have notes on a bunch of music to check out based on stuff you guys were playing. :(
posted by taz at 7:01 AM on January 29, 2011
posted by taz at 7:01 AM on January 29, 2011
Maybe time for a MeTa thread on "Let's roll our own Listening Room" then?
posted by philipy at 7:13 AM on January 29, 2011
posted by philipy at 7:13 AM on January 29, 2011
If the jukebox model is used, I wonder if there would be some way to become a music vendor, or tie click through purchases so that the song purchase prices somehow doubled up as jukebox credits. It would encourage people to buy lot's more music -- a double reward system. That model would probably make the record companies happy too. Or reverse it, all the LR credits you put in allow for hanging out, then is just sitting there waiting for you pick songs you want along the way.
But I wonder about the song credit thing? Abe mentioned that 10 people in a room each contributing 1 credit would allow for 10 songs. That sounds absurd. Even at a couple cents a pop, that's not a lot of incentive to stick around for very long. There has to be some different payment schedules for this. An actual radio station doesn't know what the actual listener count is. And since the site holds many rooms that likely play the same songs over time, maybe there's a way to do the accounting differently by collectively counting songs and user base over time, and average it out across the entire site? That would be an interesting application for optimization.
Another thing, LR is based on the idea of getting together physically in one place and sharing music. Nobody has to pay for the songs you play when you invite people to your place for some music and drinks. The main difference is that you're not broadcasting to the public. I wonder if we could get around the radio costs by creating rooms that are invitation only? Technically, that would be private, right?
posted by goodsignal at 8:46 AM on January 29, 2011
But I wonder about the song credit thing? Abe mentioned that 10 people in a room each contributing 1 credit would allow for 10 songs. That sounds absurd. Even at a couple cents a pop, that's not a lot of incentive to stick around for very long. There has to be some different payment schedules for this. An actual radio station doesn't know what the actual listener count is. And since the site holds many rooms that likely play the same songs over time, maybe there's a way to do the accounting differently by collectively counting songs and user base over time, and average it out across the entire site? That would be an interesting application for optimization.
Another thing, LR is based on the idea of getting together physically in one place and sharing music. Nobody has to pay for the songs you play when you invite people to your place for some music and drinks. The main difference is that you're not broadcasting to the public. I wonder if we could get around the radio costs by creating rooms that are invitation only? Technically, that would be private, right?
posted by goodsignal at 8:46 AM on January 29, 2011
There's no way in Hell I'm paying to play songs that someone can come along and just decide to remove. Doesn't matter how cheap it is.
posted by theichibun at 9:34 AM on January 29, 2011
posted by theichibun at 9:34 AM on January 29, 2011
I sure am glad we have that copyright law to keep musicians safe from immoral activities like, uh, listening to each other's music. A legally mandated $50,000 bribe protectionist fee to corporations with sweetheart government deals... that's a totally reasonable way to keep the music industry fair and honest.
Seriously, just because it's legal does not make it moral. The sooner we can divorce the concepts of legality and morality, the sooner folks like Abe will feel like greasing palms for the "right" to play music is the only moral choice. It's not Abe's fault, it's just a disgusting system. These laws don't help anyone but the big businesses that wrote them.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:22 AM on January 29, 2011
Seriously, just because it's legal does not make it moral. The sooner we can divorce the concepts of legality and morality, the sooner folks like Abe will feel like greasing palms for the "right" to play music is the only moral choice. It's not Abe's fault, it's just a disgusting system. These laws don't help anyone but the big businesses that wrote them.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:22 AM on January 29, 2011
* that should say "...the sooner folks like Abe will stop feeling..." This is why I avoid political threads: I get ranty and don't type straight.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:24 AM on January 29, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:24 AM on January 29, 2011
There's no way in Hell I'm paying to play songs that someone can come along and just decide to remove. Doesn't matter how cheap it is.
Precisely why I don't think this method will work. At what point does the credit pay for the song? I see three possibilities: 1) When it starts playing, 2) sometime during the song, and 3) after it has finished. For the first two, the current method of song removal would allow any jackwagon to cause even more grief for the room. I barely put up with it as it was, and I'm certainly not going to pay for that privilege.
If he's planning on credit deduction after the song has finished, what would stop people from prematurely ending the song before it ends to avoid payment?
What about glitched music?
And why should I pay to share music that is public domain or Creative Commons?
That being said, he did put in a clause that listeners might not have to pay (emphasis mine):
Song credits come from users, who buy them and then contribute them to the room, or from sponsors, who can pay for a room’s song credits in exchange for the room running a small ad.
Depending on how the ads are handled, it might not be too bad. What I worry about is that there will be audio ads every 5-10 songs (like commercial radio) that are unskippable, unmuteable and irrelevant to my wants and needs.
Someone mentioned that most of the code was based on open source libraries, so it may not be too difficult for one (or some) of us to roll our own private LR. I have some ideas, so hit me up if anyone is interested in implementing something. I may try to roll something of my own at some point, but I'm not ready to start just yet.
posted by narwhal bacon at 10:31 AM on January 29, 2011
If someone here were able to clone the service, would hosting it overseas (like commenter Lamurias suggested on the blog post) be a US copyright law workaround? Could that be combined with goodsignal's idea of making it invitation-only (so it's not technically "broadcasting to the public")? Seems like those two layers of protection might be worth implementing.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:50 AM on January 29, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:50 AM on January 29, 2011
No, don't think centralized hosted service, think 'thing I can install on my own web server'.
posted by empath at 10:54 AM on January 29, 2011
posted by empath at 10:54 AM on January 29, 2011
This is really disappointing. If an open source version is made I hope a mefi-flawored server/room appears soon after.
posted by Memo at 11:10 AM on January 29, 2011
posted by Memo at 11:10 AM on January 29, 2011
Damn. I was really looking forward to going back on listening room. I don't understand how record companies would oppose something that introduces people to new music. The laws with internet radio are really ridiculous, and they also apply to conventional radio, because every radio station streams online. That's why you never hear full albums played on the radio anymore. That said, I hope Listening Room is resurrected in one way or another.
posted by catwash at 12:49 PM on January 29, 2011
posted by catwash at 12:49 PM on January 29, 2011
My ideal workaround would be a Listening Room-esque page associated with Mefi Music, (just one room for the whole site). It already handles MP3 uploads, charts, discussion threads, etc., so it's not a great big leap. But that's probably too much to ask.
catwash: "Damn. I was really looking forward to going back on listening room. I don't understand how record companies would oppose something that introduces people to new music. "
For what it's worth, this is not being done at the behest of the RIAA. The creator of the site was never contacted by lawyers with a C&D or even a complaint -- he was retooling it to work better with a larger audience, then decided to use it that renovation as an opportunity to make it comply better with copyright law.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:03 PM on January 29, 2011
catwash: "Damn. I was really looking forward to going back on listening room. I don't understand how record companies would oppose something that introduces people to new music. "
For what it's worth, this is not being done at the behest of the RIAA. The creator of the site was never contacted by lawyers with a C&D or even a complaint -- he was retooling it to work better with a larger audience, then decided to use it that renovation as an opportunity to make it comply better with copyright law.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:03 PM on January 29, 2011
He should just put it back up until the c&d's come. I just don't see it succeeding. More power to him if he gets it to work though. I'd love for this to be on MeFi somehow, but that has even less of a chance of happening. Which we all probably already know, which is why there's no MeTa.
Though it would be freaking awesome if we had LR here on MeFi. If it had limits and no chat (you know chat on mefi would be a dealbreaker)...well actually now we're just down to a list of songs that are playing. And mefi music basically already has that. So. Um.
I'll just see myself out now.
posted by cashman at 6:04 PM on January 29, 2011
Though it would be freaking awesome if we had LR here on MeFi. If it had limits and no chat (you know chat on mefi would be a dealbreaker)...well actually now we're just down to a list of songs that are playing. And mefi music basically already has that. So. Um.
I'll just see myself out now.
posted by cashman at 6:04 PM on January 29, 2011
I vote we write an open source version of this so I can put it on my own server.
I second that. I want one.
I was just saying I wanted to do this. I appreciate his desire to do everything "above board" but from his description of all the hoops he, and we, would have to jump through, it just sounds like it would be... no fun.
posted by louche mustachio at 7:52 PM on January 29, 2011
If anyone does take the reins on this sort of project, please MeMail me about it. I'd love to be kept aware of such a thing and not sure where the "sign up for updates" button is.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 8:34 PM on January 29, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 8:34 PM on January 29, 2011
Ditto here, please. I doubt I'd be much good at the initial phases of this, but I've got some python hacking chops if that's the route that ends up being taken.
posted by ChrisR at 2:01 PM on January 31, 2011
posted by ChrisR at 2:01 PM on January 31, 2011
I... I may have something.
It's not anywhere near functional yet, but I've been playing with some of the same technology that LR is/was using and it's incredible. It's been a great learning experience. For the inquisitive, it's all Javascript (both server and client).
Abe tweeted that LR might be back up in ~2 weeks, but I'm going to continue working on my clone in case LR ever goes away again (or never comes back).
posted by narwhal bacon at 11:49 PM on January 31, 2011 [4 favorites]
It's not anywhere near functional yet, but I've been playing with some of the same technology that LR is/was using and it's incredible. It's been a great learning experience. For the inquisitive, it's all Javascript (both server and client).
Abe tweeted that LR might be back up in ~2 weeks, but I'm going to continue working on my clone in case LR ever goes away again (or never comes back).
posted by narwhal bacon at 11:49 PM on January 31, 2011 [4 favorites]
I thought LR used Flash?
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 7:19 AM on February 1, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 7:19 AM on February 1, 2011
It does if it needs to.
It uses node.js for the server, with server.io for client/server communications and soundmanager2 for audio. Both server.io and soundmanager2 have Flash components if your browser isn't up to snuff, but I believe soundmanager2 defaults to Flash because the html5 <audio> tag is still being fleshed out.
posted by narwhal bacon at 9:27 AM on February 1, 2011
It uses node.js for the server, with server.io for client/server communications and soundmanager2 for audio. Both server.io and soundmanager2 have Flash components if your browser isn't up to snuff, but I believe soundmanager2 defaults to Flash because the html5 <audio> tag is still being fleshed out.
posted by narwhal bacon at 9:27 AM on February 1, 2011
Interesting. Please keep me updated about your project. If Listening Room is rendered unrecognizable after Abe's update, it'll be nice to have an alternative. What measures (if any) are you taking to stay out of legal hot water? It looks like a few people are still following this thread. Just the same, you might want to post a link in MeFi Projects when it's ready. Maybe a MeTa thread would be appropriate too, though you should check with the mods. It would give it more exposure than a Projects post alone, at any rate.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 9:57 AM on February 1, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 9:57 AM on February 1, 2011
Quick policy opinion, there:
If it's "here is a software platform I made that you can use to create your own private decentralized LR-type audio treehouse", that'd be a gimme for Projects.
If it's "here is an audio treehouse I'm hosting specifically for mefites, let's listen to music together", that'd be fine for Metatalk.
The latter being a natural follow-on of the former seems totally plausible to me, though, yeah, by all means feel free to check in with us once this gets more into Actually Happening territory if you want an opinion based on the situation at that point.
This really does feel like one of those ideas that's now Out There, like it's a gimme that someone (or more likely multiple parallel someones) will find a way to make it work as a local thing. And it frankly makes more sense as a local sense, private rooms as it were, than it did as a big public EVERYBODY COME ON IN thing. I think LR pretty much doomed itself by being a place instead of just a platform.
posted by cortex at 12:06 PM on February 1, 2011 [1 favorite]
If it's "here is a software platform I made that you can use to create your own private decentralized LR-type audio treehouse", that'd be a gimme for Projects.
If it's "here is an audio treehouse I'm hosting specifically for mefites, let's listen to music together", that'd be fine for Metatalk.
The latter being a natural follow-on of the former seems totally plausible to me, though, yeah, by all means feel free to check in with us once this gets more into Actually Happening territory if you want an opinion based on the situation at that point.
This really does feel like one of those ideas that's now Out There, like it's a gimme that someone (or more likely multiple parallel someones) will find a way to make it work as a local thing. And it frankly makes more sense as a local sense, private rooms as it were, than it did as a big public EVERYBODY COME ON IN thing. I think LR pretty much doomed itself by being a place instead of just a platform.
posted by cortex at 12:06 PM on February 1, 2011 [1 favorite]
"Want to sponsor Listening Room? You get a small, non-intrusive ad, and goodwill among a community of engaged music lovers. DM for details."
posted by cashman at 10:50 AM on February 2, 2011
posted by cashman at 10:50 AM on February 2, 2011
Musicians continue to make their money through live appearances. Album sales help them be who they are and keep them afloat, but recordings still essentially amount to publicity. As more and more culture is internet-driven, and thus self-published, it becomes very obvious that folks are willing to release their goodies for free.
Is it the downfall of the expert? I heard somebody mention that about Internet culture. Not sure, myself.
posted by phenylphenol at 5:22 PM on February 2, 2011
Is it the downfall of the expert? I heard somebody mention that about Internet culture. Not sure, myself.
posted by phenylphenol at 5:22 PM on February 2, 2011
But yes, this seems to most certainly be an apologize-later sort of situation, though I understand why Abe got spooked.
posted by phenylphenol at 5:23 PM on February 2, 2011
posted by phenylphenol at 5:23 PM on February 2, 2011
News and information. He's going to run it as a "small webcaster" and won't be needing 50 grand or a kickstarter campaign. He's going to use small ads that show up - one per song. Also, he's running a private beta (sign up at the post, you'll need a Twitter account) before the relaunch.
"Here’s the plan for getting LR back up and running:posted by cashman at 7:53 AM on February 9, 2011
1. I’m currently making some technical changes to make LR comply with internet radio regulations. These changes should be done in the next couple of days.
2. I’m looking for advertisers to sponsor Listening Room. Please contact abe at sleeperindustries dot com, or fill out the form below.
3. Next week I’m going to relaunch Listening Room in private beta, to test out all the new changes (there are some nice new features and UI improvements as well). You can sign up to participate in the private beta below.
4. After a short private beta period, once I’ve got the bugs worked out and enough advertisers in place, I’ll re-open LR to the world.
Thanks again to everyone for your support. I can’t wait to have LR back up and running!"
Thanks cashman. My twitter account finally gets to be useful.
posted by Memo at 10:21 AM on February 9, 2011
posted by Memo at 10:21 AM on February 9, 2011
Glad to hear he's moving forward with it. I signed up for the beta.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 8:04 AM on February 10, 2011
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 8:04 AM on February 10, 2011
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posted by l33tpolicywonk at 8:52 AM on January 22, 2011