From here, you can click the play button, add it to a collection, click one of the tags at the bottom to enter into a search scenario, and check out the maker’s profile page and other playlists. It’s always clear how recommendations on your homepage are made.ĭrilling down in content a bit, each “album cover” also incorporates a hover state with contextual information. The iconography is also consistent and clear across your media bar and the site itself. I also feel it can look sloppy if I’ve scrolled left on one carousel and right on another.Īll the carousels have the option for you to browse their content as its own sub-feed by clicking the hamburger between the arrows on the upper left. It leads to the site overall feeling very crisp and clean sometimes the indication of the offscreen element makes the site feel heavier on one side. I like this way of indicating further off-screen content more than peeping it on the left or right. It’s a little tiny breadcrumb that disappears when you aren’t interacting with the element. It provides context to where I am in the recommendations. It’s nice to see what page of the carousel you are on next to the arrows. Those two functions are independent of each other, but both options are available here.Ĭarousels start to incorporate information in their hover states. I also love that I can favorite a song in a playlist without favoriting the playlist itself. Since internet radio generally only allows a certain number of skips per hour, I use it to judge if I want to sit through the song, or if I actually hate it. You can also click the artists and albums to find information about them. That page replicates the “Youtube/Buy/Favorite” element in the right of the progress bar. Clicking the playlist thumbnail on the left will take you to the playlist information page, where the played tracks are displayed. Say you heard a song you liked and don’t know, but missed seeing the title in the progress bar while you were browsing. It always displays what you are currently playing. The media player is also a workhorse on the site. I don’t feel like the content is crowded, and it is all very clearly separated. One thing I love is the site’s dedication to white space. Honestly, most of the time I am looking for one of the last 5 things I have played. I like that it is displaying content I have interacted with in some way first, before any recommendations. On my homepage, the visible carousels are “Listen Again” and “Liked Playlists”. I wondered if I would be able to find out why that may be. It’s not just that the music is curated in the way I like, I also find it much less overwhelming than competitive music streaming services. I thought it would be interesting to do a deep dive into 8tracks user experience and interaction. I can type in “study chill” and be directed to hundreds of ambient playlists, and if I want to refine, I just type another keyword, which can be an artist, genre, mood, activity…anything.

I doubt Spotify would be able to recreate the music of middle school dances better than the user who created the “Suburban White Boy Jams” playlist. I can search for Fringe and find essentially unofficial soundtracks of music used in the show, which given Walter’s amazing record collection, is a good way to spend a few hours. It plays in to how I like to listen to music. The playlists are entirely user-created, which means each playlist is curated by people rather than an algorithm. I’m an evangelist for, the internet mix-tape platform.

8tracks radio cover art