- cross-posted to:
- OpenSource@europe.pub
- opensource@programming.dev
- cross-posted to:
- OpenSource@europe.pub
- opensource@programming.dev
Lately I’ve been thinking about the mix CDs I used to burn for friends. Building the perfect mix for someone took a lot of time and intention, but it was a great way to expose friends to the rare musical gems I’d discovered, and sometimes, they even returned the favor.
In the transition from physical mixtapes to cloud-hosted playlists, we stopped giving each other digital things. These days, we mostly point to things that we don’t control.
Mixapps are my answer to this loss of digital ownership. Drop some .mp3s into a folder, run some python scripts, and your playlist gets packaged as a Progressive Web App. Upload the resultant “mixapp” to any HTTPS-enabled host, and your friends can install it to their home screens with just a few taps.
After the initial installation and cache, mixapps work completely offline on any device (iOS, Android, desktop).
Source code: https://github.com/hunterirving/mixapps
Live demo (using public domain tracks): https://hunterirving.com/vibe_capsule
A GUI would be great. I wonder if something like Faircamp could be used as a backend to essentially make a simple static website which can be viewed offline with a browser. With a template it’s just a case of dropping files into a folder.
Very interesting. I hadn’t heard of Faircamp before, but really like the concept. Thanks for sharing! My (very) rough idea right now is to make a website that lets users 1. drag and drop audio files from their desktop into the browser, 2. arrange them to build a mix, and 3. use WebRTC to connect with the receiver, who can then install the PWA. If I could get that working, it would eliminate the need to use the command line, unless you want to permanently host a mixapp.