What it is
On Cue is a local-first iPhone app where the notification is the product. It learns your life and your Apple Music library, then delivers a contextual Cue — timing, place, calendar, weather, taste — so the right song lands at the right moment. The app itself is configuration, learning, and recovery. You don’t build playlists or write rules.
Who it’s for
People who want music to show up as a timely cue in real life — not another browser for catalogs and playlists.
What you can do
- Connect Apple Music + Notifications (first-run demo Cue in one sitting).
- Optionally connect Calendar and Places so the month gets smarter.
- Get Cues as real Lock Screen notifications — Play / Save / Skip.
- Start a trial into Running (full ongoing cues) or stay in Preview.
- Share or Send a Cue — Stage A is a gift link; growth is the link.
How it makes money
Subscription via RevenueCat:
- Monthly = $2.99/mo; Annual = $19.99/yr (US).
- Entitlement-gated Running vs free Preview.
- Intro offer: 1 week free on both plans. Judges can unlock premium via that trial.
What makes it different
- Not a ChatGPT wrapper. Sensors + context + Apple Music + private on-device intelligence + behavior in the physical world.
- Cue fires as a local notification — the demo is the product.
- Privacy-shaped architecture (local-first; Apple Intelligence / AFM path on supported devices).
- Clear story for iOS 27 / Apple Intelligence news cycle without claiming generic “AI app.”
Categories we’re targeting (and why)
- Grand Prize: Build & Grow — Post-release plan: waitlist → Live, magic-moment short-form, Noise creator playbooks, Apple Ads Search, Custom Product Pages, public growth experiments. Trajectory > vanity installs.
Launch day (Sep 24–25): our first two paid subscriptions, one yearly and one monthly, with no free trial and before any paid ads were running.
- #BuildInPublic — Factory + public build story; community feedback already shaped first-run, screenshots (no album art), review replies, Share vs Send. Link posts in Additional info as they land.
- Most Viral App (Noise) — Repeatable Cue-magic formats via Noise; submit app URL + Noise account email once Live.
- RevenueCat Design Award — Craft of the interrupt: Lock Screen Cue, Motion, quiet UI until it matters.
- HAMM — Trial → Running via RevenueCat, paywall with then-price, entitlement honesty.
Build story
We shipped toward first public release under Shipaton pressure: local Cue engine, Apple Music, first-run that ends in a real notification, RevenueCat entitlement, App Store Review iterations (album-art IP, WeatherKit attribution, permission CTAs, subscription metadata). What’s next after Live: Social Cue Stage A (gift links), Custom Product Pages for Life Soundtrack / Apple Intelligence / Tesla, and a public growth log through Sep 30.
What’s next
- Land Live store listing + Shipaton growth curve.
- Share / Send loops so “I made something for you\" replaces \"download my app.”
- Keep BuildInPublic: try → numbers what surprised us → what we changed.
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