Versify

Inspiration

We were initially inspired by the power of recommendation systems, such as Netflix and YouTube, and had the thought of creating a similar platform for music. Ideas bounced until we landed on the concept of sharing music through curated playlists, which then turned into sharing music through community-based playlists. Once we had our general idea, we focused our target initially to UCSC students, with the possibility of opening up to a broader audience in the future.

What it does

Versify connects music-listeners in similar geographic regions, in this case UCSC colleges, through the curation of community playlists. Our initial idea was to aggregate songs based on user listening activity, but after some debate we decided to implement collaborative playlists on Spotify that are tied to a corresponding region.

How we built it

We mainly focused on each of the views in the application, and how the user would interact with each. Once the user flow was made clear, we were able to get a good understanding of what else we needed and how to implement additional features into the app.

Challenges we ran into

We had a lot of difficulty working with Spotify accounts and authorization, and ultimately ended up ditching the idea for a more time-efficient method of sharing. Given more time, we would love expand Versify and work towards the ambitions we entered this hackathon with.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were especially proud of finalizing a product for submission, something that felt so far away just 24 hours ago. We committed to our work for this weekend, and ended up coming a lot further than we initially expected.

What we learned

In regards to technical skills, we learned how to use UserDefaults for persistent user preferences, and gained some insight on how Spotify's iOS SDK could have been implemented. We also learned to work more efficiently in a team, level-headed communication and time management + task delegation is crucial.

What's next for Versify

Versify has a bright future ahead, with features such as Spotify account integration and unique user preferences coming to the app for an upgraded user experience. We are looking forward to the scaling Versify, with the possibility of new songs being shared amongst an ever-growing number of Versify communities across the globe.