I was texting to a former coworker, a guy that reported to me, but not long enough frankly to really get to know him before I, uh, "departed" the company. He asked me if I was still using my home grown music service, MLocker. I told him that, yes, at this point, it has streamed tens of thousands of songs and is used by my entire family. In fact, it's been four years now. As he put it... "The world needs more software like that. Purpose-driven, scratch-your-own-itch type of stuff." I wonder if it could have any potential as a profitable app.
This exchange was extremely flattering, even though he specifically hasn't really taken advantage of my curiosity project. I'm literally listening to music being served by this service right now. While I'm still proud of the longevity of CoasterBuzz and PointBuzz/Guide To The Point, the fact that I use this music app that I built literally every day is uniquely gratifying. I can't think of anything else that I've ever built that is so regularly used by me and my family. Putting aside my preference to own music instead of subscribe to it for a moment, what I made is the functional equivalent of those huge subscription services. And it lands in a profound way because, as I'm sure many can agree, music is an integral and important part of my life.
I've had a great many ideas over the years around "good" ideas for software, and made many of them real. It's a little frustrating though how none of them were likely to become a business. There are two ideas that I've prototyped that theoretically could be this. One is a social media clone that has no algorithm, no ads, just friends posting stuff, but I've mostly left it. People tell me they're interested, but would they give me money for it? I also have a theme park idea that wouldn't net a ton of money, but it's a fun idea. I should flesh that out, even if it's just for the fun of it. Friends know what that is.
No comments yet.