Last weekend, I went to London to participate in the Music Hack Day.
This particular hackathon is growing with a very fast rhythm. Consider what follows, for example: my very first MHD was Barcelona in October 2010, and from that moment I had the opportunity to partecipate in three other editions (New York, San Francisco, and another time in Barcelona) and to be among the public during the Cannes’ edition. That, and I also managed to skip another twos. After less than three years since the entire initiative started, it has demonstrated a relentless pace in proposing new events and building a community of music hackers (more on that later).
Spotify App Store, and MXM’s hack
I think one of the main themes during this MHD was the recently announced Spotify App Store. Most appropriately, a group of Spotify developers was present at the conference, which proved to be an inestimable source of help and encouragement during the 24H sprint.
Despite some minor glitches and random problems with the development environment, I have to say that writing software that has to be deployed into the Spotify client is a pleasure. It all boils down to write one or more web pages, using Javascript to make it live, via Spotify’s API and maybe another third party service to do something interesting.
In fact – after all, I’m a musixmatcher – we spent the weekend working on a lyrics app. I think the aim of such a project is obvious, anyway here a screenshot.
Next?
I’m not sure where next MHD will be. There will be a new “proof of concept” during Midem early in 2012, and I heard about another full-fledged edition in Amsterdam soon. I have the feeling, also, that Dave Haynes, our über-organizer, is almost flooded with cities offering to host next MHDs. That’s good news.
I think the majority of the attendants are employed in companies operating in the digital music ecosystem, but I also met many “solo” developers simply attracted by the coolness of the event. More importantly, I can’t help but seeing people helping each other and collaborating even if they’re not coworkers or members of the same masterplan to conquer the music industry. In other words, a true community is growing.
I’m not sure what’s the best way to keep nourishing this community: certainly there’s no shortage of opportunities to meet, but I think more can be done on the online part. Food for thought.
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