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The UX of Grooveshark

I stumbled on this music site called Grooveshark accidentally via Smashing Magazine, but I am glad I did.  It has a rich user interface with alot to like.

The obviousness of what to do first is the best part.  I typed in a song.  Ting Ting: That’s Not My Name.  It was there right in front of me and then I was listening to music.  The whole experience was in Flash, but it didn’t look overfly flashy.  I saw the add on the right, but the neat thing was the promo at the bottom.

Very clever and not obtrusive.  I wonder how much money they are making off that link.  Also, right-clicking was a custom menu which I appreciated as a serial right-clicker.

There were a few downsides to this service.  First was the sketchy nature of the songs.  Some would play, some hung.  I wonder what the legality of this whole thing is.  I thought it wasn’t legal to play any song on demand, but clearly they are doing just that.  It was neat to see the “cover versions” of those songs.

Additionally, I wish there was more connections like “If you like this song, here is another band you would like.”

Overall, neat service, with some questionable issues.  Work a look if you build a Flash/Flex app.   Also good if you are looking for some obscure song.

Comments

2 responses to “The UX of Grooveshark”

  1. JyoNah Avatar
    JyoNah

    Grooveshark is spectacular. Love the service, love the people behind it.

    The close add bit is clever, but not original, its becoming more and more standard on free version/paid version services. I would however be interested to know how much of an outcome that little button brings. I’m sure they track how many of those clicks convert to a new customer of their VIP service. (Also, the $3/Month gets you more than just no adds, there are a handful of other benefits)

    Now, when you say, “If you like this song, here is another band you would like.” It sounds to me like the radio button. You didn’t mention it specifically, so I don’t know if you had spent enough time with Grooveshark to realize it was there. Did you know about it, or where you looking for something more?

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  2. mdmadph Avatar
    mdmadph

    I would love to pay the $3 a month to remove ads (and also get Android and Blackberry app access — you can download the apps to use Grooveshark on your phone, but they cost money to use), but considering that Grooveshark is currently being sued by Universal Music, there’s no telling how much longer they’re going to be around.

    Of course, they did get sued by EMI ealier, and eventually made a deal with them to stay in business, so who knows?

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