Desi Radio (Trend Following App Just for Fun)
A music-streaming website with an Instagram-style, trend-driven browsing experience.
The Backstory
Why this system was engineered, what existed previously, and the core operational bottlenecks it solves.
Desi Radio is a music-streaming website built around a familiar, feed-based discovery pattern — similar to how Instagram surfaces content — applied to songs instead of posts, making music discovery feel scrollable and trend-driven rather than search-first.
The Challenge
- 01.Traditional music sites rely on search-first discovery, which doesn't encourage casual browsing.
- 02.Needed a lightweight, engaging way to surface trending tracks without a heavy app.
- 03.Playback needed to feel smooth and continuous while browsing.
The Solution
- 01.Built a feed-based home screen where songs surface the way posts do on social feeds.
- 02.Implemented a persistent player so playback continues while browsing the feed.
- 03.Focused the experience on trending and discovery over search-first navigation.
Modular Capabilities
Scrollable Discovery Feed
Swipe/scroll through tracks instead of typing a search query.
Persistent Player
Music keeps playing while you keep scrolling.
Trending Surfacing
Algorithmic or curated ordering surfaces what's hot.
Lightweight UX
Low-friction entry, no account wall to start listening.
Mobile-First Layout
Designed for one-handed, on-the-go use.
Simple Playback Controls
Play/pause/skip without a cluttered interface.
Technical Deep Dive
The feed and the player are decoupled at the state level — navigating the feed never remounts or interrupts the active audio stream, which is the technical detail that makes "keep scrolling while it plays" actually work smoothly.
Audio is streamed rather than fully downloaded before playback starts, so a track begins playing within moments of being tapped instead of waiting for a full file transfer.
The discovery feed is built to lazy-load track metadata and artwork as the user scrolls, keeping initial page load light even as the catalog grows.
Project Gallery
Discovery Feed
Scrollable, Instagram-style song discovery layout
Now Playing
Playback screen with player controls
Trending Feed
Trending/recommended tracks view
Business & Velocity Value
Direct outcomes, architecture speedups, and developer feedback delivered in production.
Post-Mortem Takeaways
Borrow Familiar Patterns
Feed-scrolling from social apps lowers the learning curve for a new kind of product.
Persistent State Matters
Playback state must survive navigation for a feed-based music experience to feel right.
Discovery Over Search
Casual browsing needs a different default than search-first music apps.
In progress. Links are placeholders for now — will be added once live.
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