Testing a New Search Engine
Hey Wagoneers,
The time has come to put our almost-new music discovery / search engine into your hands. It’s not ready for the world yet, but I think it’s ready enough for you all to take a look at it.
Before you dig in too deep, there’s a lot of work still to be done, and I’m asking for you to #BE-LOUD with your comment, requests, and bug reports. In return, I’ll do my absolute best to address every single report I receive.
Search, What Is It?
This experimental new design is loosely based on other visual search engines. With music, there’s not much text to search, so this is primarily a tag-based search that lets you search by band and album names, with searches based on song lyrics coming soon.
When you upload an album, you can enter any number of tags that will categorize your work. Then, server admins (in this case, me) can choose which of those tags to highlight, and which to block. Highlighted tags get big shiny buttons on the default search page, and the rest will show up as you type in the search box.
I can also add links between different genre tags. These appear underneath the search box, to help fans explore different kinds of music. There’s a few examples in there already, and we’ll dial it in together in the next few weeks.
And no, I’m not planning to block any tags at the moment, but I can if we run into anything super offensive or abusive. Just don’t be an asshole :)
My Questions for You:
I’ve got tons of questions, and I’d love to hear what you think about any of these issues. And, of course, if you come across anything else you’d like to talk about regarding Bandwagon, I’m all ears.
Does it Look Okay?
Since this will be “consumer facing”, it’s important that it look good and work well. I’m open to any and all of your suggestions. I’ve picked some stock photos to represent each genre. But if I’ve missed the mark, please let me know.
Will This Make Things Better For You, Specifically?
Can you see visitors (from the Fediverse and beyond) finding your music through this? Will it be a net positive for you to list your music in a search engine like this?
Are The Top-Level Genres Right?
I took a shot in the dark with this, based on popular tags on other music services, then tried fine-tuning it based on the music that’s already been tagged on Bandwagon.fm. But there are plenty of other kinds of music. Is there particular genre that would help surface your music to more listeners? Let’s get it in there, too.
Are the Related Tags Right?
Tying different genres together is not automated. It’s a manual step that I’ve done based on how people already have their albums tagged. I’m hoping that this work will prompt more artists to take a second look at how their music is listed, which will also help improve the tag relationships I have in there now.
If you have suggestions on how I should do this better, please let me know.
Bonkwave?
Yes. #Bonkwave. Also, #Not-Bonkwave.
If none of my pre-selected genres work for you, feel free to tag your stuff into either of these fine locations.
Timeline
For the moment, the search engine you see now is only visible to Bandwagon.fm members. I’d like to make this public to everyone in the first part of February.
I’m sure we’ll bump into a few unknowns along the way, which is why I’ve made this timeline intentionally flexible.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://bandwagon.fm/6791767cf15a0f113571139f