ViralCulture

Helping live performers reach a wider audience

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Inspiration

One of my family friends has recently begun sharing his piano pieces on YouTube. He made an attempt at live streaming, but was unable to generate a high number of views.

Then the Hackathon came a few days later. The team and I have assembled to help people like my friend build the online presence they deserve.

What it does

We are solving the issue of low accessibility to live cultural events, which have now moved online in response to the outbreak.

Live events are streamed on a daily basis, but there are no efficient tools to help artists or cultural organisations spread the word about their work.

Similarly, it is extremely difficult for users to find relevant content, as YouTube or Twitch algorithms favour large streamers who are skilled in the use of key words, or already have large audiences.

We have developed a web based application, designed to give every content creator an equal opportunity to reach their target listener.

Our platform lists a schedule of live cultural events posted by the content creators, in a way that is visually appealing and simple to understand. Each event has a link to the page from which the content is streamed, so that logged in users may simply watch that stream on our page.

Anyone using the page can search for an event using a dedicated search bar, and then save a selected event in their calendar (Google Calendar, iCal or Outlook Calendar).

The broadcast schedule has a 24-hour time span. We wanted to give it a familiar feel, so it is designed in a fashion that is known from online TV Guides.

Each event card includes a link to the content creator’s Patreon account, enabling direct financial support.

A huge advantage of our app is that any stream url from any large streaming service can be embedded into our platform.

How I built it

We have used a modern tech stack in tackling that problem.

Our technology stack includes a React/Redux frontend with MongoDB service connected to the frontend via a Stitch SDK which provides a serverless infrastructure.

Because we are hosting the data and the server-side logic in the cloud, our platform is extremely flexible and will be able to scale easily in response to an increase in traffic volumes.

Challenges I ran into

The biggest challenge for us was designing an appealing UI/UX. We have decided to continue down the path of a TV guide for live streams, which we think works really well.

There were also some minor issues with some of the node packages we had used, as they had to be partially re-written to function on our page in a reliable way.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

  • ** Live Stream Guide Logic ** - creating the Live Stream Guide to have a look and feel familiar to users of TV Guides. This will enable users who are less comfortable using new technologies to easily navigate through the page
  • Setting up the serverless infrastructure - it is robust, scalable, cheap, extremely quick and the functionalities of this software will be fully supported for many years to come
  • Delivering an MVP in time - Hackathons provide a high-pressure environment where one really has to put their back into it to get things done. Our plan was to deliver an MVP for Sunday evening - we are proud to say that this indeed was the case.

What I learned

The main learning points can be summarized in three sentences:

  • Sleeping it off solves 95% of bugs
  • You have to keep the user your top priority
  • Pressure (especially time pressure) creates a fertile ground for the most creative of ideas.

What's next for ViralCulture

We have a tonne of great ideas, which we will be able to implement and further explore with help from an experienced mentor, preferably someone with online marketing experience.

We could also use some help from graphics and UI designers, who would work alongside us to create a top-notch user experience.

Last but not least, we would really appreciate being connected to a network of online influencers or up-and-coming artists, who will be quick to see the value in our application and help us further promote it online.

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