Kapsule

Matching music lovers to music they'll love.

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"Imagine The Voice, meets Tinder." Kapsule matches music lovers to music they'll love ❤️ and puts artists in the spotlight based solely on their talent

Inspiration

Kapsule was born from frustration and a determination to disrupt the music industry. After a decade in music and event marketing, Joey Tadiar saw the same story play out again and again: real talent buried under hype, big budgets and algorithmic bias. The charts weren’t about sound. They were about followers and funding.

So he built something different.

 "Built for artists. Made for music lovers"

Kapsule flips music discovery on its head, putting the power back in the hands (and ears) of listeners and letting the music speak for itself. No names. No algorithms. No hype. Just pure sound.

What is Kapsule?

Kapsule is a music app designed to give music lovers the the power to decide what's hot based on sound. Kapsule's blind listening experience creates a level playing field where artists rise based on talent, not algorithms, budgets, or hype.

Anonymous Listening Experience

The app introduces a first of its kind anonymous listening experience: listeners swipe through tracks without seeing who made them. Only after liking a track is the artist revealed, making the Kapsule charts the first to be based solely on sound.

For Artists:

Kapsule provides a platform for artists to build a genuine fanbase who love their sound.

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  • Upload your tracks and compete on a chart driven purely by listener taste.

  • Rise in the charts without needing big budgets or a social following. Your talent does the talking.

  • Leverage built-in AI tools like track artwork generation and the Tutor Lab, a music-savvy AI coach offering production advice and creative input.

  • Unlock achievements through community engagement and app activity to boost visibility.

  • Build a real fanbase based on merit, not marketing.

For Listeners:

  • Experience music blindly, free from bias or influence, and discover new talent in the most authentic way.

  • Earn XP by engaging with the app: liking or disliking tracks, adding them to your library, and listening over time.

  • Shape the charts based on what you love, not who you know.

How I built it

⚡️ Why Bolt? I chose Bolt to build Kapsule because it lets me move fast without limits. With zero coding experience, I built a fully functioning music app complete with audio playback, subscriptions, AI integrations, and secure login, all inside Bolt.

  • No-Code Web App Development Bolt was used to build the entire Kapsule homepage and web app, bringing the music platform to life quickly and efficiently. Bolt made it easy to create custom features, with smooth music playback, and secure user logins, without getting stuck in complex setup or repetitive code. It let me focus on the experience and design, not the technical hassle, and helped me launch faster, making my idea a reality with everything working seamlessly all using prompt-to-app.

  • Branding Having seen many websites and apps built using AI, I've noticed a recurring theme where they all start to look the same. My first goal was to create brand assets and visual identity in for Kapsule, establishing a strong and memorable aesthetic across both the website and app so it didn't look like it was built using AI.

  • UI/UX Design Designed the full user experience in Figma, from the music discovery flow to the layout of the player and library views.

  • Elevenlabs Voice AI Challenge KapsuleKit is an AI powered toolkit integrating AI through Abel, a conversational model trained on music production and electronic music genres for real-time creative coaching and track recommendations. I've also implemented SoundLab a dynamic text-to-SFX soundboard and VocalLab and text-to-speech feature for artists. KapsuleKit powered by Elevenlabs.

  • Supabase Startup Challenge Kapsule's backend is powered by Supabase. User authentication, Edge Functions such as Stripe paywall, Elevenlabs API, secure track uploads handling storage and file conversion, user profiles and verification, and all backend logic, including Artist analytics, loyalty based user XP, user interactions and engagement. Supabase is essentially the brain of Kapsule and allows the app to have super cool features.

  • Netlify Deploy Challenge Kapsule is fully deployed using Netlify.

  • State Management & Audio Playback Bolt implemented Zustand to manage audio playback and state, displaying Bolt’s flexibility in handling real-time audio logic and global state syncing.

  • Payments & Monetization Integrated Stripe to set up a working payment system, showing how easily Bolt supports subscription logic and external APIs.

  • iOS Beta App Development As Bolt completed all the heavy-lifting with creating the backend on Supabase, building the iOS MVP was just a case of replicating the pages from the web app. Once the full web app, including homepage, authentication, player logic, and music library was live and working in the Bolt preview, I used it as a framework to build the iOS beta app.

Bolt played a key role by suggesting a clean file and folder structure that made it easier to reverse-engineer and port the web app to iOS using a mix of Bolt, Cursor and Xcode. I used Cursor because it plugs directly into Xcode and updates files from the interface. But Bolt was suggesting how best to replicate the web app using the backend.

Challenges I ran into

  • Learning to debug and build with zero coding background, I relied heavily on Bolt’s built-in fixes, trial and error, and ChatGPT for support

  • Communicating complex UI and interaction logic clearly to AI tools

  • Syncing data between Supabase and the frontend without breaking core functionality

  • Getting the music logic to work and ensuring backend fairness with rules for duplicate likes, track reveals, and library management required extensive conditional logic

  • Rebuilding the homepage pixel-perfect to match Figma, including colors, animation timing, and precise button placement using Bolt’s no-code editor

  • Overcoming performance issues when testing audio playback across multiple views ensuring smooth and uninterrupted playback while navigating between pages like Charts and Library

Accomplishments I'm proud of

From branding and design to marketing, onboarding Beta artists and integrating backend functions, I solo-built a fully functional music discovery MVP for both web and iOS.

40 beta testers already onboard (10 artists & 30 listeners), with 200+ on the waitlist.

Documented my build journey on social media amassing over 70,000 views across all platforms.

Bought a 4 year old idea to life in just 30 days without writing a single line of code.

What I learned

Building Kapsule taught me how powerful no-code tools and AI can be when you combine vision with persistence. I learned how to communicate ideas to machines, troubleshoot bugs with no prior coding experience, and turn abstract concepts into real, functioning features. Every challenge, from syncing data to designing UI, to refining the user journey taught me more than any course could.

But the biggest thing I learned? I’ve discovered a new love for building apps with AI.

What’s next for Kapsule

I'm kicking off closed Beta testing with real artists from my music network. After feedback and iteration, I'll hard launch both the webapp and iOS app. The goal: redefine music discovery around what really matters. Sound.

The hackathon inspired more than a build. It's inspired an entire brand and business.

And so I put together a deck which outlines my future goals.

Kapsule iOS Design in Figma

Kapsule Web App Design in Figma

Kapsule Branding

Built With

  • bolt
  • chatgpt
  • cursor
  • elevenlabs
  • figma
  • xcode
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