Pony.fm: The Pony Music Hosting Site

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,525]

Follow the Development Blog!

After many months of development, pony.fm is finally almost ready for a public launch!


Bronies create music... a whole darned lot of it. It's one of the spectra of fan labour that draws many new fans in, and there's a huge variety to be found, from high-end work by professional musicians to adventurous people making their first remix.

But all that music has to go somewhere. Right now, most of it is fragmented between established sites like Bandcamp, YouTube, and SoundCloud, which are well known for what they do, but are not particularly well attuned to our fandom's needs (and by their generic nature, they inherently cannot be). Bandcamp isn't exactly a community, SoundCloud imposes limits on your downloads, and YouTube was never supposed to host music in the first place, leaving artists in search of an outlet to host audio downloads at.

Pony.fm is going to change that. As a site built by a brony, for bronies, my goal is to make it not just another option for artists to release their music - the goal is to make it the definitive place for all things FiM fan music. To that end, the site will incorporate a number of features such as...

• Exclusive support for lossless uploads
• FLAC, MP3, and other formats available for every track
• Unlimited free downloads
• Seamless integration with pony radio stations, allowing them to broadcast your Pony.fm uploads (if you allow them to - the choice remains with the artist)
• Unified login with MLP Forums - every MLP Forums account is a Pony.fm account, and vice versa
• Taxonomies based on the TV show itself, making the discovery of new music easy and fun
• "Playlists" to collect and organize your favourite music
• Follow an artist to be notified when they upload new music
• Commenting and other social community features
• Embeddable players and badges for sharing music on other sites
• ...and more. This is by no means an exhaustive list of Pony.fm's features, but it should give you an idea of just what kind of scope this project has.
  
  
  
  Intrigued yet? It gets better - alpha testing is about to begin, and YOU'RE invited!
  
  At this time, I'm looking to personally work with a group of artists to understand their precise requirements and expectations of a pony music hosting website, and to build out the exact features they need. We'll communicate primarily in a private section of MLP Forums, where polls, feature requests, bug reports, and discussions will be shared. It doesn't matter how popular you are - every opinion counts, and Pony.fm will have something special for everyone, whether you're publishing your first remix or need a place to handle ten thousand daily downloads.
  
  If you're interested, read this post on the dev blog to see the requirements and find out how to join. As the first group of people to see the site in action other than myself, alpha testers have the unique opportunity to shape the features and feel of the site before the general public gets to play with it.
  
  
  
  In closing, let me leave you with this question:
  
  What would it take to make Pony.fm your favourite place for FiM fan music?
  
  It doesn't matter if you have a degree in music or casually listen to it as a consumer - Pony.fm will serve artists, listeners, and everyone in between.

[XrosOver 613]

Im quite interested in this new site. I may not have musical talent bu I do have a keen ear for good music. My question is this, when will I be able to make an account?

[Flicker Sweet 3,391]

I'm so excited Feld0!
Music and ponies are the best shipment in the world! THEY ARE MEANT FOR EACH OTHER!!! And here  I find you facilitating that!

I'm gonna join as soon as it's ready!

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,525]

Im quite interested in this new site. I may not have musical talent bu I do have a keen ear for good music. My question is this, when will I be able to make an account?

 

You already have one.

 

Because I own both sites, I'm able to integrate MLP Forums and Pony.fm to make them share the exact same logins. So, when Pony.fm is ready, you will be able to log into it using your MLP Forums username and password.

 

I'm actually hoping to implement single-sign-on (SSO) so that logging into one site will automatically log you into the other. Because pony.fm and mlpforums.com are different domains, however, the cross-domain SSO implementation has to be designed really carefully to be both secure and reliable. As a result, SSO may not be a day-one feature (but you still won't need to make a new account if you already have one on MLP Forums).

[Vicke 3,188]

Unified login with MLP Forums - every MLP Forums account is a Pony.fm account, and vice versa

 

That was a really nice add. Jolly good show, Feld0!

 

Are the remixers allowed to remix what ever they want, or should it be music from the show and fan created?

If they may upload whatever they want, can't you get lawsuits  against you :/?

[Creamy Arty 6,252]

I've been looking forward to this. Looking for pony/brony music elsewhere has been hit and miss thing for me thus far with very few options for filtering my results, aside from trying to trick a basic search function. This rules.

 

I don't have any suggestions or anything. SSO was all that I was interested in but you're already on that. Everything you're looking to implement from the beginning is everything I'm interested in. My only question, that has little to do with the average user's experience, is if artists will be able to charge for downloads or accept donations there. Most release their stuff for free but some try to get a little something one way or the other.

Edited December 4, 2012 by Artemis

[Jokuc 8,173]

Sounds awesome!  You have pretty much listed everything I'd want with such a site, but two things. 1. The oppertunity to rate music from 1-10 or 1-5 (I prefer a 10 scale). Also, I hope I'll be able to see the cover art (if there is any) for the song while playing it like in youtube!

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,525]

That was a really nice add. Jolly good show, Feld0!

 

Are the remixers allowed to remix what ever they want, or should it be music from the show and fan created?

If they may upload whatever they want, can't you get lawsuits  against you :/?

 

Pony.fm is a site for My Little Pony fan music. So, you can only upload remixes of MLP music, not whatever you want. As far as legalities are concerned, the terms of service will make it clear that the artist will be held responsible if they upload something illegal. Fan music should fall under "fair use" as long as it's non-commercial; however, there will be a DMCA-like rights claim & takedown procedure just in case.

 

My only question, that has little to do with the average user's experience, is if artists will be able to charge for downloads or accept donations there. Most release their stuff for free but some try to get a little something one way or the other.

 

This has been a popular request so far. Honestly, I'd love to make it happen, but I need to do my legal homework on that first. Music is already enough of a legal gray zone the way it is, and tying money into it tends to make things a lot more complicated. I don't want any artists to get in trouble for earning some cash from Pony.fm, and I don't want to get myself in trouble for it, either.

 

Sounds awesome!  You have pretty much listed everything I'd want with such a site, but two things. 1. The oppertunity to rate music from 1-10 or 1-5 (I prefer a 10 scale). Also, I hope I'll be able to see the cover art (if there is any) for the song while playing it like in youtube!

 

I think I'd rather have a less numerical rating system, because those tend to boil down to people always voting the minimum or the maximum in an effort to skew the rating. The initial alpha will not have a rating system, as it is something that I need to do a little more planning on. However, I'm absolutely open to suggestions and discussing them.

 

I've been considering a YouTube-esque "like" system, where you either like a track or you dislike it (and if you have no opinion either way, you hopefully don't vote). That has seen some controversy, however, and may be open to "rating bombing" where people gang up to spam dislikes.

 

Another possible system is an algorithm like what RottenTomatoes uses in their Tomatometer. The way it works is, each rating is converted to a percentage (if it isn't one already). All ratings of 60% or above are considered "fresh", and all ratings below 60% are "rotten". The Tomatometer is the percentage of counted ratings that are "fresh", and not merely an average of the ratings themselves. I think it's an innovative system that is less biased in giving people the information they're looking for at the end of the day, which is: is the movie worth watching?

 

Tomatometer scores below 60% typically mean "it's not worth it". Scores above that usually indicate a good movie. Scores of 85% and up tend to indicate movies with virtually universal appeal.

 

These are just two systems that are out there and in use on a relatively large scale. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts on them, or any other rating systems you're familiar with.

 

 

Cover art is in - as a matter of fact, it's already an implemented and functional feature (spent a good chunk of last week debugging a crucial flaw in it, where it corrupted track downloads). If the artist uploads cover art, it will be displayed on the track's page and embedded into the MP3 download.

[Vicke 3,188]

@@Feld0,

 

If you do implant a rating system of some sort, a top list would be very nice to have. Also something like, "Recently uploaded" "Daily viewed" or "Top rated today" would be a very nice touch to it all.

 

---

 

I'd like to see a similar rating system that Youtube uses. Simply like and dislike.

Having the percentage is simply not my thing, and i do not like how something can be considered to be crap or a masterpiece. Let the dislikes and likes do the job for that.

[Dr. Vojislav Seselj 691]

 

'Been looking forward to this for a long time.

I hope it goes well.

 

Looks like it's time to ponder big-name brony artists to post their material on the new site

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,525]

Minor dev update: The API frameworks that will form the bridge between MLP Forums and Pony.fm are mostly in place now, and I expect to "plug it in," so to speak, at some point later today.

 

That means, you may be able to log into Pony.fm soon! However, unless you're on the alpha team, all meaningful functionality will be disabled.

 

 

@@Feld0,

 

If you do implant a rating system of some sort, a top list would be very nice to have. Also something like, "Recently uploaded" "Daily viewed" or "Top rated today" would be a very nice touch to it all.

 

---

 

I'd like to see a similar rating system that Youtube uses. Simply like and dislike.

Having the percentage is simply not my thing, and i do not like how something can be considered to be crap or a masterpiece. Let the dislikes and likes do the job for that.

 

All the lists you mentioned are all great ideas, and I think they'd all be relatively easy to implement. I'll put them on my list.

 

As for rating system, I suppose YouTube like/dislike has served them well enough. Although it is vulnerable to cheating, no rating system ever will be perfect, and I agree with you that the percentages may give people the wrong idea of, as you said, what's "crap" and what's a "masterpiece".

 

With the Tomatometer, I have found many movies in the 80's to be just as enjoyable as ones in the 90's, so it's really difficult to create any kind of rating system that objectively rates the site's content from best to worst. Factor musical preferences into it (ie. some people will simply prefer Hollywood-style orchestral music over gangster rap), and properly ranking all the content becomes an insane proposition. 

[Wolfy 20]

This sounds absolutely fantastic! I'd be honored to help out in anyway possible, even if I only have a few pony songs under my belt compared to others, XD.

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,525]

Some updates I'd like to share:

• MLP Forums and Pony.fm are now fully "plugged in" to each other! So, you are now able to log into Pony.fm using your MLP Forums account, and your password and email address will be synced across instantly if you change them. Feel free to test this feature out and play with it.
• I've decided to make Pony.fm a fully SSL-secured site. So, every last bit of it will load over HTTPS. Enjoy that green lock in your address bar.
• Another perk of SSL is that it allows me to use SPDY, a transfer protocol that improves page load speeds by functioning somewhat differently than standard HTTP/HTTPS. If you're using a relatively recent version of Chrome or Firefox, you'll load the site up via SPDY automatically, which should, in theory, boost its performance.

 

 

There's still plenty of room for more artists in the alpha!

[Obsidian_Winter 1,159]

As someone who has worked in the Music Industry for years, this excites me. I think it is all very well thought out and I can't wait for it to happen. I see a Pony.fm Andriod App in the future at some point. At least I hope.

[ReGen 1,466]

I have a question.
 
I wish to somehow contribute my music to this site. Does it have to be somewhat good? My stuff may not really be that good compared to everypony else's... Heck, I use my PSP to make my songs.

 

EDIT: Um... ignore this post or delete it. I didn't read the whole post. I'll leave a comment on teh blog. 

Edited December 13, 2012 by Supernova
The mega quote was unnecessary.

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,525]

I have a question.

 

I wish to somehow contribute my music to this site. Does it have to be somewhat good? My stuff may not really be that good compared to everypony else's... Heck, I use my PSP to make my songs.

 

There is no minimum threshold of how "good" your song needs to be to upload it to Pony.fm at this time. It is a site designed to be a very user-driven community, and part of its appeal will be that it's open to anyone and everyone. Pony.fm's goal is to bring together all of the fandom's musicians, composers, arrangers, remixers, and (of course) listeners, in a single community where they can all learn from, interact with, and enjoy the works of each other.

 

There are just two critical requirements for uploads:

• All uploads on Pony.fm must be My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan music. Pony.fm is not for non-pony content.
• No stealing someone else's music and claiming it as your own. Anyone caught doing this can expect severe consequences (note: remixes are fine, as long as they are credited appropriately; there's a big difference between that and art theft).

Pony.fm even accepts explicit songs, as long as you tag them appropriately.

 

Want in?

[ReGen 1,466]

There is no minimum threshold of how "good" your song needs to be to upload it to Pony.fm at this time. It is a site designed to be a very user-driven community, and part of its appeal will be that it's open to anyone and everyone. Pony.fm's goal is to bring together all of the fandom's musicians, composers, arrangers, remixers, and (of course) listeners, in a single community where they can all learn from, interact with, and enjoy the works of each other.

 

There are just two critical requirements for uploads:

• All uploads on Pony.fm must be My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan music. Pony.fm is not for non-pony content.
• No stealing someone else's music and claiming it as your own. Anyone caught doing this can expect severe consequences (note: remixes are fine, as long as they are credited appropriately; there's a big difference between that and art theft).

Pony.fm even accepts explicit songs, as long as you tag them appropriately.

 

Want in?

Gladly. Just one more question:

 

In my songs, there are no quotes by the characters from the show. Does it still count as MLP music?

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,525]

Gladly. Just one more question:

 

In my songs, there are no quotes by the characters from the show. Does it still count as MLP music?

 

It absolutely does. If the song is dedicated to ponies, about ponies, or is otherwise directly related to ponies, it's MLP fan music.

 

I added you to the QA team, so come stop by in the special forum section!

[ReGen 1,466]

It absolutely does. If the song is dedicated to ponies, about ponies, or is otherwise directly related to ponies, it's MLP fan music.

 

I added you to the QA team, so come stop by in the special forum section!

Thanks a lot. It's great to help out with anything about the site. Benefits us both, I guess.  

 

Good thing too. I am finishing up a Twilight song.  

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,525]

FYI, the artists' alpha is very close to opening up! There's one last feature left to implement, the "tagging" of tracks. What does that look like?

 

A picture speaks a thousand words, so have a screenshot of the track editor:

 

 

Before publishing a track, you will be required to declare what "type" of track it is (original music, remix, etc.). Even cooler, if it's a remix, you can select exactly which FiM songs the track is a remix of. These "tags" will be used to gather together all the remixes of a particular song, to make it as easy as possible to find... say, every Winter Wrap Up remix on the site. Should be a fantastic feature for all you listeners, even if you don't write any music yourselves!

 

This will actually become a vital feature of Pony.fm over the long term, and there's an awful lot that can be done with it. But it all starts with artists declaring what their track is a remix of, which is why this is a required part of the track publishing process.

[Gone Airbourne 21,977]

Oh I am so apart of this! This is just plain awesome, Pony.fm made by Feld0.... Bow down to his greatness now! Checking this out right away 

[K3WRO 79]

Whoop, this is amazing, now I don't need to upload my songs onto soundcloud with people complaining "The downloads limit is full, make a new link" kind of thing, and it'll make searching music easier so I won't need to rely on EQD posts anymore!

 

I love you

[Arcanel 3,041]

I can't really contribute because I sadly don't make music, and any ideas that could be useful have already been said or I can't generate.  But I think I can help out on something.

 

You know Feld0, since this will be an exclusive MLP:FIM music place for downloading, why don't you start promoting to big places like Equestria Daily, Derpy Hooves News, The Round Stable, etc? I know you're still on the alpha stages, but it is certainly something people might get interested in.

 

And another idea is to comment it on the My Little Remix page, which is pretty much the biggest place to get informed on pony music as it is quite the big forum, and as a plus, you might also get influx from people to get to MLPForums from an early stage. I think that, while still barely reaching alpha, at least to one place or two it will start getting interested and see how it evolves, you might get more people to participate, and maybe even get some help.

[MatrixChicken 879]

I hope I can crank out some pony music for this sometime! I've made a few non-pony songs, but they sound pretty meh for the most part. xD

[kirbyboi 588]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpgy21r_dRE

 

 

FINALLY! A place where I can find some good brony music!! I try looking some up on youtube, but I usually don't get many results or their hard to find...but this site looks so boss.....you can even create your own playlists!!! SQUEEE!

 

 

Can't wait for this site to open! I'm gonna be on this site for a while.....this is perfect!!