The Jazz Groove

The Jazz Groove reaches its listeners through a website, a membership system and a pair of mobile apps, and all three are the same station. A listener who starts a trial on the web expects the apps to know them, and the station expects one account of what was played and who paid for it.

So the work is scoped as one engagement rather than three. The web, the CRM and the apps are built and maintained together, which is what keeps membership state, playback and reporting consistent across surfaces that a listener moves between without thinking about it.

A station funded by the people listening to it has a narrow margin for the kind of inconsistency that shows up when three teams own three surfaces. The listener does not experience a platform. They experience the station.

A free-trial flow feeding member acquisition, with auto-renewing plans alongside one-time donations for listeners who do not want a subscription.

Those two are not the same flow wearing different labels. A recurring supporter is signing up for a relationship and needs an account, a renewal and a way to change their mind. A one-time donor is making a single decision and should be able to finish it in a few seconds without creating anything.

Both routes are in front of the listener at once, including inside the apps, because the moment someone decides to support a station is usually the moment they are enjoying it rather than the moment they visit a support page.

The royalty reporting tool was rebuilt to meet Performance Rights Organization requirements, so payouts are tracked accurately and defensibly.

This is an obligation with an audience of auditors rather than listeners. It has to hold up as a record: what was played, when, to how many people, under which agreement, in a form the rights bodies accept.

It also has to keep doing that quietly, every month, without anyone assembling it by hand. Reporting that depends on someone remembering to run it is reporting that eventually is not run.

iOS and Android apps built in React Native, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto carrying custom interfaces rather than a stock list. Playback starts on its own when the phone reaches the car, which is the behavior a radio station should have and most streaming apps do not.

Chromecast and AirPlay cast to speakers and televisions, so the same station runs through the house without the listener thinking about which device is playing it.

The apps carry the station's own curation on the surface: the mixes, the sleep and vocal standards streams, the smooth jazz channel, and a recent history showing what has just played and who played it. The listener's most common question about a radio station is what that track was, and the app answers it without being asked.

Now playingThe live stream, with its programming

StationsMixes, sleep, vocals, smooth

Track detailWhat is playing, and by whom

RecentThe answer to the usual question

The shipped iOS app. The same surfaces run on Android, in the car through CarPlay and Android Auto, and on speakers and televisions through Chromecast and AirPlay.

The file-based streaming already running the website was adapted into the apps, so a listener gets individual tracks alongside the curated live stream rather than one or the other.

That is a deliberate position between two models. A radio station's value is that somebody chose the running order. On-demand playback undoes exactly that, so the apps keep the curated stream as the default and let the listener step sideways from it.

Skips are tiered rather than unlimited: three a day on the free tier, six an hour on premium. The free experience stays genuinely worth having, and the upgrade has an obvious reason to exist that a listener can feel rather than read.