I am part of a small team of five music lovers. We are DJs, producers, collectors and festival goers active in different scenes. Over time we felt streaming changed our relationship with music. We know it is convenient, but it is also passive. Playlists replace personal collections and algorithms replace people. We missed the feeling of truly owning and organising music in a way that reflects who you are.
So we started building Crates.app. It is not a streaming platform, but more a space (or home) to create your own crates, organise music properly, discover through other people’s taste and link to places where artists can actually be supported.
We already use MusicBrainz to structure artist, release and track data when organising imported files, and we really respect how seriously it treats music information. In the future we would love to explore ways for users to contribute back while organising their collections.
We are still early and would really value your thoughts. How do you organise music outside streaming, and what would you like to see from something like this?
I’ll remember to come throw in some comments next week as I am away a few days\busy. I use KODI at home on a home media server. VPN access to that server allows me playback from my Android mobile.
I organise music with tags. I also use file folders to keep track of source - CD Rips, Concert Bootlegs, Rips from Friends, TOR, Digital purchases, Bandcamp.
Why I like KODI is it allows my physical folders to then be searched as one. I kinda see this as a possible in your app as well.
I’m old skool CD and media files. Don’t do the streaming shops, but like how you are integrating.
I like the way you have links to Discogs Collections. Do I assume MusicBrainz collection is possible? These are ways I’d also like to index my music, but currently KODI is lacking links to those online sources.
Crates is built around personal collections and community interaction, so even the free version needs an account. Your crates and activity are tied to your profile, and without that the core features would not really work. We also take privacy seriously and try to be transparent about how accounts and data are handled. You can find more detailed information on our knowledge base section of our website.
Get a folder with the tracks and supplemental files for a release. This could be ripping a CD, scanning the front cover, and taking photos of the booklet. Or digitizing a record or tape and scanning/photographing the packaging. Or downloading a digital release and its cover art.
Create profiles/views of that collection that are suitable for different music players, using some software I wrote. E.g., the default profile picks a single image per folder, since many music players aren’t great at handling multiple images. Another profile applies replaygain (and strips the RG tags to prevent doubling it) and converts everything to MP3 for the least-featured music players I use.
Sync those profiles to the various places I listen to music, mostly with rsync and RCX.
I’m guessing that I’m not your target audience at all? I want to manage my music collection locally so I can use it with whatever software I want to, and so I can include it in the backups I use for all the other files I care about. I don’t see myself ever moving to an online platform to manage my music collection. I have exported my collection to an online platform to listen to it before, but then I didn’t really care when that platform went away because I still had everything I cared about locally. So I guess what I’d like to see is open source software I can run locally that’s either in Debian or F-Droid.
