JukeBox

Inspiration

Inspired by the retro theme of HackGT and our passion for music (a dancer, a violinist, a pianist, and a DJ), our vision was to connect people around the world through the magic of - now virtual - jukeboxes. Don’t we all love a good playlist? JukeBox is the perfect platform to link both creativity and love for sharing for users across the globe.

What it does

JukeBox allows the user to both create and participate. Through the app, one can create his JukeBox which would be added to the map at his current location and trigger the creation of a synced playlist on Spotify through which people can queue songs freely to enable worldwide contribution. However, sometimes you just want to discover! That is why Jukebox allows you to search for specific geographic locations and access the jukeboxes in the area via a database that stores all the different JukeBoxes, giving the listener the luxury of a wide variety of music genres, languages, and vibes.

How we built it

After a surprisingly quick consensus on what our project would be, we started with an initial brainstorm about what our app should do and what the user could do with it. We decided to develop the project on Xcode using Swift. We knew we wanted it to revolve around music, which is why Spotify was the obvious choice for us. Our initial vision also included a connection between people around the globe and that's when the idea of a map came up. We then came to the conclusion that the only way we would be able to keep track of this load of information would be through a database. That's how the different components came together. We split the tasks: while one of us worked on getting access to the API and being able to incorporate Spotify- like features, others collaborated on the creation of the database and the storage of information. We also worked on setting up the map functionalities and getting access to the user's location and made use of files that allowed us to parse for coordinate locations based on the input city. When all of the components came together we were ecstatic. Our Map was populated, our songs played and our database was filling up but most importantly the world, through music, felt connected.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into multiple challenges while developing. But we knew it was part of the process. From struggling with the Spotify API to googling every other command, our rubber duck was certainly exhausted. The challenge was also linked to the fact that most of us never coded in swift and had no previous experience with XCode. Learning how to build our database as well as alter it within the code also took a lot of time and effort. However, the most challenging thing as obvious as it might sound was to get the buttons to be centered on the image :)

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Some of our biggest accomplishments were to quickly adapt to a new coding language, Swift, which required some hours of Googling and a lot of collaboration. Additionally, managing to smoothly integrate all three aspects of the bullion process into one app, and create one unified solution was certainly a great accomplishment.

What we learned

Our eagerness to learn was one of our main drivers during the process. The million google tabs we opened will prove that. From learning how to code in Swift to accessing the Spotify API and building a database, the amount of information we received this weekend exceed anything we would've ever imagined. But apart from the technical spiel, what we mainly learned from this was teamwork and perseverance. It takes a lot of effort to go through a project like that and even when we felt like giving up, we always found ourselves trying as hard as we could to complete our tasks.

What's next for JukeBox - Revisited

For JukeBox, the options are infinite. We first plan of getting all of the basic functionalities to work successfully across multiple devices but that's only the start. We also aim to add multiple features including a leaderboard of the playlists with the most listeners and filtering options in terms of genres, artists, or moods. In later versions, users would also be able to upvote and downvote queued songs. The app could also be used in private settings like restaurants, and offices where people can work with some enjoyable background music that they all agree on. The jukeBox can also be the sound master behind big concerts in which people can queue for the songs they like and enjoy the tunes. For JukeBox, HackGT9 is only the start.