Welcome to the Facebook Demo Q&A Series. Today let’s welcome back Jeremy Lim (Project Opus, Donat Group) updating us on what’s new in Mixx Maker, what lessons Team Mixx Maker has learned on Facebook, insight on sharing music online, and more.
Mixx Maker and MixxMaker.com are both running on the same Drupal install, so they share the same database. Because of that, they both share a mutual blog and forum. Plus, we can also aggregate all Mixxs for display on MixxMaker.com.
Not reinventing the wheel can be a good thing. Mixtapes worked, so Mixx Maker works. The concept of contextual music is tried and true, and people don’t have to relearn the idea – they just know. Personality pieces are also good. A Mixx’s theme and the music tied to it speaks volumes of a person, which does cater to the ego.
Q: What’s new in Mixx Maker? How does Mixx Maker differ from the 1st iteration/version?
Jeremy Lim: From a functional point of view, Mixx Maker is still very much the same from when you saw it last, but it has been polished up for public release. Some planned features, like using a photos as poster frames, were dropped in order for us to focus in on Mixx Maker’s core functionality – music sharing.
With this release, we’re also launching MixxMaker.com, a hub for Mixxs and Mixxers to come together. Right now, we’re offering collaboration through a forum, but in the future, we want to streamline multiple social networks together so users can create their own ‘music social maps’ through Mixx Maker.
The last time we presented, there were a lot of questions about legal and scalability issues. Since then, we have consulted legal opinion, and have been ensured that we stand on solid ground. We also showed Mixx Maker to members of the music industry, and received favorable feedback from Nettwerk Music Group and musicians. Both Nettwerk and the musicians saw Mixx Maker as a helpful tool to share and promote music. To address the scalability issues, Mixx Maker is now hosted on a new server provided by Peer1. (Many thanks to Delynn, Boris, and Lance for helping us with everything!)
Q: Can you share any lessons you have learned from Mixx Maker?
Jeremy Lim: Developing applications ALWAYS take longer than expected and asking for help can carry you a long way. From the start, our CEO, David Gratton, has always stressed that Mixx Maker be something that is simple and that offers instant value.
Also, not reinventing the wheel can be a good thing. Mixtapes worked, so Mixx Maker works. The concept of contextual music is tried and true, and people don’t have to relearn the idea – they just know. Personality pieces are also good. A Mixx’s theme and the music tied to it speaks volumes of a person, which does cater to the ego.
Q: Can you tell us how the Mixx Maker (and/or Opus) website complements the Mixx Maker Facebook app?
Jeremy Lim: Mixx Maker and MixxMaker.com are both running on the same Drupal install, so they share the same database. Because of that, they both share a mutual blog and forum. Plus, we can also aggregate all Mixxs for display on MixxMaker.com.
Right now, Mixx Maker doesn’t tie back to ProjectOpus.com. However, integration is definitely in the future plans.
Q: Any tips or tricks you can share about developing a Facebook app using Drupal?
Jeremy Lim: Developers should watch how they’re handling URLs. You have to constantly jump back and forth between your server and Facebook’s. Also, forms should send their data through Facebook instead of directly to your server.
The Drupal-Facebook integration code is very small. Once we had that in place, it was a lot of straight Drupal for most of the pages, and we were able to add features rather quickly.
When it comes to design, overwriting some of the main form theming functions can let you create a consistent ‘Facebook’ feel for all our forms.
Q: Any comments on the challenges of building a social web application that lets you share music?
Jeremy Lim: Legal issues on stealing and broadcasting music were always a big concern. We had to put a number of checks in place to make sure the song files uploaded stayed within fair use.
Even with legal and industry support, we’re sure some people will remain uncertain of Mixx Maker, especially fear that the RIAA breeds. Fortunately for us, the music industry is finally shifting towards new digital marketing and distribution. Today, three of the four major music labels have already dropped DRM, with Sony soon to be the last. Times are changing, and we’re confident things will shift in our favour in the long run.
For more information on our checks, see our Mixx Maker blog story titled “How Mixx Stays Within Fair Use”.
Thanks Jeremy Lim for your time.
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January 18, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Thanks for posting this up for us, Gerald!
Anyone got pre-questions? Hit me up!