Described as a “Yik Yak for songs,” QMusic is a music queueing app with an interface similar to an anonymous comment feed where users can up- or down-vote a song that could be played in a public venue.
The app was created for a typical bar atmosphere where suggesting songs can often be a hassle. It’s linked through Spotify to allow easy searching abilities for users and playing for DJs.
Some legality issues are plaguing the app’s team. An email after a subscription to the beta list says, “The name of our app will be changing from ‘QMusic’ to something (hopefully) similar – we’ve had some legal issues with this name.”
The QMusic team, comprised of Ryan Daulton, Sam Wood and Jeff Rueth, three seniors in the College of Business Administration, are ready to take their app to more competitions and venues.
The app is currently under private beta testing and will be released sometime in May, granting initial access to those signed up on its their email list. Following the release, Caffrey’s Pub will have a test night for QMusic in May. If all goes well, Murphy’s Irish Pub may also try the app. The app will be free to download and use.
“Once it goes public, then I’ll actually be able to bring something to the bars,” Wood said. “Right now we’ve talked to Caffrey’s and Murphy’s and they’ve been like, ‘Oh it’s a great idea … but where is it?’ It sounds great, but they want us to show them (the product).”
Daulton began singlehandedly developing the app in February and worked on it for almost two months until he completed an initial prototype. He is a completely self-taught developer who learned how to make apps by watching YouTube videos and seeking help from blogs and coding sites.
“I’ve taken one coding class in my life and couldn’t (retain) anything from it,” Daulton said. “It was really poorly structured.”
Daulton is trying to add more features to the app, such as allowing users to add songs they hear at the bar directly to their Spotify library or browse their personal playlists to add a song to the queue.
The team recently won first place and a grand prize of $5,000 toward the project at Impact Next, a business competition hosted by the Kohler Center for Entrepreneurship April 23.
Despite this big win, the team has few expenses at the moment and plans to keep the money tucked away until needed. Server costs are anticipated to go up if the app gains traction and is used among larger crowds. For now, the server costs remain at $1.11 per month.
The next stop for QMusic is InnovaIT, an app development competition for information technology students April 29.
“Apps are such a crapshoot these days with what’s going to tank and what’s going to take off,” Daulton said. “So it’s really just going be a little bit of heart and a little bit of hard work.”
Monica Adya, an associate professor of management in the College of Business Administration and a faculty advisor for the QMusic crew, saw the product grow from a simple business idea to a competitor in innovation challenges.
“I think they’re doing a great job of seeing where they originally started and where they’re going to expand,” Adya said. “One thing that I’ve been challenging (them) to think about is how (they) can do this beyond the bars.”
