[HN Gopher] Show HN: Lofi.cafe
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Show HN: Lofi.cafe
        
       Author : linuz90
       Score  : 884 points
       Date   : 2021-04-14 11:42 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (lofi.cafe)
 (TXT) w3m dump (lofi.cafe)
        
       | animanoir wrote:
       | The idea is cool, but god damn, I don't like its lack of
       | optimization.
        
       | blondie9x wrote:
       | I guess one advantage of this is it might use less energy than
       | streaming on Youtube directly? Haven't done comparison yet though
       | to quantify CPU resource utilization and power consumption.
        
       | l00sed wrote:
       | Thank you for using this domain name so well.
        
       | ryanyl wrote:
       | Haha, I built a super similar thing last year with even a super
       | similar url (https://lofi.chat)!
       | 
       | https://lofi.chat/r/Hacker-news-310e9120
       | 
       | Good vibes only
        
         | rnotaro wrote:
         | I love breaking things and I've noticed that user are able to
         | intercept the UID / ID of the received messages in the
         | Websocket and edit / spoof past messages from other users.
         | 
         | edit: And editing other user names and rooms settings.
         | 
         | Just letting you know. :)
        
           | ryanyl wrote:
           | Thanks for catching that! One thing I really wanted for the
           | project was not having to sign in to use, but that's been
           | causing a lot of security holes like this. Gonna try to fix
           | everything soon
        
         | motohagiography wrote:
         | I really like this idea, is there a way to add soundcloud
         | streams to it instead of youtube? I'd like to link this from my
         | soundcloud page.
        
         | malux85 wrote:
         | Cool site! Created a room for the HN crowd here:
         | https://lofi.chat/r/DEFI-45867b3a
        
           | linuz90 wrote:
           | Oh nice! Would be dope to integrate a chat on lofi.cafe
           | itself, but it's still a bit beyond my programming skills.
        
         | kthartic wrote:
         | Can nobody make posts anymore without someone else trying to
         | self-promote?
        
           | ryanyl wrote:
           | Just sharing for the fun of it! This was just a fun weekend
           | project from a year ago, and I found the similarities too
           | funny to pass up.
        
           | mlok wrote:
           | I want to know alternatives. Let them promote !
        
           | throwaway823882 wrote:
           | you new here bruh
        
           | resoluteteeth wrote:
           | Show hn posts are already self-promotion so isn't it
           | reasonable for other people to also be able to promote
           | similar things they've created?
        
             | cjaybo wrote:
             | I think there's a line where it stops being reasonable. If
             | I know every comment on a Show HN is going to be blatant
             | self promotion, I'm not going to view those posts even if
             | the OP is interesting to me.
        
               | merlinsbrain wrote:
               | There are guidelines for what Show HN is supposed to be.
               | This site pretty much fits the bill.
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
               | 
               | > Show HN is for something you've made that other people
               | can play with. HN users can try it out, give you
               | feedback, and ask questions in the thread.
               | 
               | > On topic: things people can run on their computers or
               | hold in their hands. For hardware, you can post a video
               | or detailed article. For books, a sample chapter is ok.
               | 
               | I am glad to see work from other hacker news members.
               | When it isn't interesting to me, I find something else on
               | the internet or IRL that is.
        
               | gknoy wrote:
               | Great point. While not everything is appropriate to share
               | in response to someone else's "Show HN" post, I've
               | definitely seen (and appreciated) others linking similar
               | projects. It usually is in the context of saying
               | something like:
               | 
               | - I tried this too, and can appreciate that you solved
               | way harder things than we expected to have to deal with -
               | I had this idea too but like your execution
               | 
               | I think it's very fitting, especially since we are
               | celebrating not just the idea, but the execution that
               | someone did to be able to show it off here.
        
               | kodah wrote:
               | Same. I love it when I see two creators of similar
               | projects mash up ideas in the comments. That's the spirit
               | of HN imo.
        
               | kowlo wrote:
               | Sounds like a good solution - stop viewing them.
        
         | fersarr wrote:
         | is there a way to explore public rooms?
        
         | creamynebula wrote:
         | A chat makes things way more interesting, but we need to be
         | able to browse for rooms too (as long as the room's creator
         | want his room public)
        
           | ryanyl wrote:
           | I'll def add it!
        
         | anoncow wrote:
         | I tried my hand at something similar using a sleep music themed
         | YT channel and website. Couldn't get things to click. And FB
         | ended up blocking my site on the sharing debugger.
        
       | ranger207 wrote:
       | https://plaza.one/ is similar, but for vaporwave
        
       | adamjlev wrote:
       | This is so dope! Love it.
       | 
       | I actually have been working on something related but not exactly
       | - mine is more generally a Youtube video zapper. Works well for
       | music and also for other genres, was a fun quarantine project.
       | 
       | Check it out! https://zapper.video/
        
       | argc wrote:
       | This is awesome, I recently have discovered the youtube lofi
       | universe and have basically stopped using spotify while working.
        
       | paulgregorylang wrote:
       | This is reminiscent of the YouTube channels with slight (ie 10
       | second) animated loops like Lofi Girl. I have used these videos
       | for deep work sessions and will certainly use your site as well.
       | Congratulations on your work!
        
       | oddrationale wrote:
       | May I also suggest the [freeCodeCamp.org Code Radio][1]. They
       | actually had a [recording artist contribute and curate most of
       | the beats under a creative license][2].
       | 
       | [1]: https://coderadio.freecodecamp.org/
       | 
       | [2]: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/code-radio-24-7/
        
         | anthk wrote:
         | Also https://libre.fm
        
       | thelandofrandom wrote:
       | Oh this is dope. Love how well it works in Mobile. Putting it in
       | my Newsletter this week
        
       | fatiherikli wrote:
       | This is amazing
        
       | webdevadventure wrote:
       | There are weird favorites going on with Show HN. I wonder how one
       | pays to get to the top?
        
       | mrwnmonm wrote:
       | Guys, check this too https://soundofcolleagues.com/#
       | 
       | - I am not affiliated with it.
        
       | Cenk wrote:
       | If you like this, you may enjoy PoolsideFM: https://poolside.fm
        
         | chrisjarvis wrote:
         | Poolside FM is my favorite radio app but this is beautiful!
        
           | eointierney wrote:
           | Also radio.garden
        
       | billfruit wrote:
       | Anyone know why this type of music is called as "LoFi HipHop", it
       | does not sound particularly lofi or hiphop..
        
         | nathancahill wrote:
         | Yeah, I always wish lofi hiphop was a little more hiphop and a
         | little less soft jazz.
        
         | majewsky wrote:
         | For the "Lo-fi" part, I was going to write an explanation, but
         | the first few paragraphs of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo-
         | fi_music explain it better than I would have.
        
         | bluedays wrote:
         | Have you ever heard of Nujabes? He has a similar sound.
         | 
         | This sound goes back to the early aughts when it had it's roots
         | in underground hip hop.
        
           | dunnevens wrote:
           | Small correction: goes back to the mid-90's as a distinct
           | thing, and you could hear that type of beat in songs even
           | earlier than that. DJ Shadow brought it into general
           | consciousness with his 1996 release: Endtroducing, but others
           | were doing similar before. Back in the mid-to-late 90's, we
           | were calling it "Trip-Hop". Though that was a broader term
           | than lofi, which seems more specific.
           | 
           | Maybe the ultimate origination were in groups like De La Soul
           | and PM Dawn. They had vocals, but their beats were often
           | super chill.
        
             | bluedays wrote:
             | I would disagree that Trip-hop is more broad. Trip-hop
             | seems much more specific.
             | 
             | As far as Endtroducing being the first instrumental hip hop
             | album, I guess one could argue that. However, it's a bit
             | like saying that Iggy Pop and the Stooges were the first
             | punk band. Either way, even though both movements come from
             | an earlier time it didn't get much attention until the
             | following decade. It would be akin to arguing that grunge
             | isn't a genre from the 90s because Dinosaur Jr. was around
             | in 87.
        
         | whywhywhywhy wrote:
         | Because that video called "lofi-hiphop beats to relax and study
         | to" became popular.
        
       | chmod775 wrote:
       | Okay no. This is garbage engineering. And yes I mean that - it
       | doesn't get much worse.
       | 
       | It would be better if this wasn't a site you're supposed to stay
       | hours on.
       | 
       | This embeds a YT video that is streaming in _HD_ quality in the
       | background, even though it 's only showing me a gif, so it's
       | already murdering my bandwidth to do something we could achieve
       | with 30kb/s nowadays.
       | 
       | But because that isn't enough, this site is enough to get the
       | fans of my laptop going. I'll probably be adding 20s to every
       | bigger recompilation just to listen to music.
       | 
       | Thanks but fuck no.
        
         | Karunamon wrote:
         | Isn't the YT audio quality tied to the video quality? IIRC, if
         | you tier one down, you do the same to the other.
        
       | santiagobasulto wrote:
       | I really liked the cyberpunk Gifs. Who made them? As other said,
       | attribution there would help.
        
         | linuz90 wrote:
         | All found on Giphy, will add attribution soon!
        
       | NazakiAid wrote:
       | I like the different stations, though would be cool to know how
       | many people are listening to the same station.
       | 
       | Song names would be good as well and the option to disable to
       | background image/animation to save CPU.
       | 
       | Overall I like it.
        
       | snarkypixel wrote:
       | Would be fun to have a chat per room
        
       | savolai wrote:
       | Beautiful. Soothing. Magical. :)
       | 
       | Is the list of stations hand picked, can I access it outside this
       | app?
       | 
       | When adding to home screen I get React app as title by default.
        
         | danogentili wrote:
         | The stations are actually YouTube streams, if you open dev
         | tools you can get the stream ID from the YouTube thumbnail that
         | gets preloaded by the YouTube library.
        
       | parisianka wrote:
       | Love your design!
        
         | linuz90 wrote:
         | Thank you, it went through quite a few iterations, trying to
         | make it as low fidelity as possibile while keeping an eye on
         | accessibility.
        
           | flir wrote:
           | First time I click on the volume control, it bumps the volume
           | to max (Firefox). Works correctly after that.
        
       | jordache wrote:
       | i like these kind of projects.
        
       | KhoomeiK wrote:
       | Definitely better than going to YouTube multiple times a day to
       | search "lofi" and clicking on one of the newly uploaded
       | compilations!
        
       | matteomosca wrote:
       | great vibes here
        
         | linuz90 wrote:
         | Thanks!
        
       | tdhz77 wrote:
       | I miss the indie web.
        
       | jeffbee wrote:
       | So happy that we now have the free CPU power to digitally add
       | fake surface noises to synthesized music.
        
       | 0xtr wrote:
       | Damn, that's nice. Thanks OP :)
        
       | eric_khun wrote:
       | Nice! An other similar project I really like from another show
       | hn[1] is https://lofimusic.app
       | 
       | [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24476641
        
       | madars wrote:
       | Nice concept, love the aesthetic! It was too CPU intensive for me
       | on a laptop so I sourcedived to find the list of svideos which
       | appear to be the following https://rentry.co/txqrq . I personally
       | use                   mpv --no-video --vo=null --ytdl-
       | format='bestaudio/best'
       | 
       | for listening to such streams. Unfortunately, as "youtube-dl
       | --list-formats" will tell you, the live streams don't have
       | separate audio tracks (which normal YouTube videos do) so this
       | only helps with CPU savings but not bandwidth (you can choose a
       | lower bitrate stream though).
        
         | kitsunesoba wrote:
         | Works under Windows 10 command prompt too after changing the
         | single quotes out for double quotes, very nice. Had been
         | keeping a browser tab with the YouTube stream open, but this is
         | undoubtedly going to be easier on battery.
        
         | gnosticrose wrote:
         | Why --vo=null if --no-video?
        
           | madars wrote:
           | (edit) I think the man page would really imply it is
           | redundant, but when trying with just --no-video and no
           | $DISPLAY (e.g. ssh'd to a machine with speakers but no X
           | server running), it picks up vo=gpu (accelerated video
           | decode) from my mpv.conf and runs with a warning:
           | [vo/gpu] Failed initializing any suitable GPU context!
           | Error opening/initializing the VO window.
        
       | owly wrote:
       | THIS IS GREAT!
        
       | crocarneiro wrote:
       | Dope! I love those, don't know what the name is, "kinda vaporwave
       | old school" styles
        
       | diimdeep wrote:
       | I think for full screen it would be better to reencode gif to mp4
       | and host that, might drop CPU in browser also but not sure.
        
       | LeoPanthera wrote:
       | I guess this got hugged, the audio was jerky and stuttering.
        
       | spark3k wrote:
       | So great. Would love to see the track details and maybe some sort
       | of equally low-fi social aspect. Just number of listeners or
       | hearts / something
        
       | ionwake wrote:
       | Just the kind of thing I would build - perfect execution well
       | done.
        
       | nvoid wrote:
       | I like it a lot and it is very responsive. One thought though, is
       | there any way to reduce the amount of JS/ trackers you are using?
       | UBlock blocking is at 10% and it is still working fine.
        
       | qwerty456127 wrote:
       | ~100% CPU load and still glitchy.
        
       | jordanmorgan10 wrote:
       | I want to live here
        
         | mrwnmonm wrote:
         | lol
        
       | ktpsns wrote:
       | What does "in this room: 25" mean? The number remains the same
       | when I change the station. Is there only a single room and I
       | changed the station for everybody? Or are there 25 people in
       | every room (=station)? :-)
        
         | linuz90 wrote:
         | It's the current visitors. I liked the word "room" to make you
         | feel like you're in good company, but maybe it'd be better to
         | just write "live now". What do you think?
        
           | jjcon wrote:
           | I like in the room - I agree it is cozier - in the cafe as
           | suggest below is also nice
        
           | nameequalsmain wrote:
           | I'd go for "listening now" or "currently listening". I also
           | assumed the "room" was the what I see now is called
           | "station".
           | 
           | Counting the listeners in a station instead of visitors site-
           | wide would be kinda neat though, and "room" works well then I
           | think.
           | 
           | edit: or maybe "in the cafe" for site-wide visitors? That
           | should be clear and has the same feeling as "room".
        
             | codethief wrote:
             | Fully agree with everything you said!
             | 
             | "In the room XXX" really confused me because I thought I
             | _were_ in room XXX. (There 's at least a colon missing
             | after "room"!)
        
             | linuz90 wrote:
             | I love "listening now", just changed it!
        
           | d23 wrote:
           | I like the "room" terminology. Maybe just make it clearer
           | that it's not a room number, but the number of people hanging
           | out in the room with you?
        
         | klohto wrote:
         | It's the number of current visitors, I guess? https://mailbrew-
         | functions.vercel.app/lofi-cafe-visitors
        
       | pomber wrote:
       | Nice work! I'm starting a similar coworking stream on twitch
       | today, also with lofi music but instead of gifs I share my screen
       | and pomodoro timers. https://www.twitch.tv/pomber__
        
       | gtpedrosa wrote:
       | Love the feel of the site. Curious about the tech stack used and
       | as others pointed out, images attribution. Nice work!
        
         | linuz90 wrote:
         | Thank you! It's a create-react-app, with a YouTube planyer
         | running the lofi channels (will add proper attribution soon).
        
       | DangerousPie wrote:
       | This is great! Perfect background music for coding.
        
       | spiffydave wrote:
       | I would pay a subscription fee if someone could locate and
       | repurpose the old playlist/soundclips from musicforhackers.com -
       | awesome streaming music site back in the '00's.
        
       | simplecto wrote:
       | Painfully cool. Wow
        
       | motohagiography wrote:
       | old cyberpunk vibe reminds me of Virtuaverse from Master Boot
       | Record: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1019310/VirtuaVerse/
        
       | borishn wrote:
       | Would be great to be able to have bookmarkable links to
       | individual rooms.
        
       | rkhassen9 wrote:
       | Love this! Somehow it really drew me in and excited my
       | imagination. Rarely have I had that sense of enchantment on HN.
       | 
       | The reasons what are ineffable to me. It was not so much "what it
       | did" as how it was put together.
        
       | loorke wrote:
       | Do you people really like such music?
       | 
       | I admit these backgrounds require a bit of effort to make. But
       | what's the point? To use it as a screensaver?
        
         | chestervonwinch wrote:
         | > Do you people really like such music?
         | 
         | I like it, but I use it moreso for when I want to tune out
         | noises in my surroundings with something other than say, "bird
         | noises" or "distance thunderstorm".
        
           | kitsunesoba wrote:
           | Yes exactly, I usually listen to it when studying. With it on
           | 25% volume and noise cancelling headphones it tunes out the
           | world very nicely while avoiding dead silence.
        
         | GartzenDeHaes wrote:
         | Yes. This is a rip of chilled cow live stream on youtube
         | (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qap5aO4i9A) that has 50,000
         | currently watching.
        
         | stiltzkin wrote:
         | Yes.
        
         | slowmotiony wrote:
         | Well it's not like I know a hundred lofi songs by heart or
         | subscribe to lofi news but it serves as a nice background when
         | I'm working alone in my apartment.
        
           | fogihujy wrote:
           | Yeah, that's pretty much it; lofi is loud enough to drown out
           | intermittent noise in the area, while monotonous and simple
           | enough to allow you to concentrate on whatever you're doing
           | instead of on the music.
           | 
           | It's not unlike elevator music.
        
             | ArcturianDeath wrote:
             | See also, https://asoftmurmur.com/
        
             | burlesona wrote:
             | Yeah it's like good elevator music, haha
        
       | Buetol wrote:
       | I like https://listenparadise.org/ in the same vein of music only
       | radio.
        
       | whatsmyusername wrote:
       | That's real slick. Royalty free Lofi is 90% of my music
       | consumption anymore since the RIAA decided they don't want their
       | artists to be relevant to anyone who is big on streaming.
        
       | VectorLock wrote:
       | Good way to profit off all those lofi beats youtube channels
       | someone else made.
        
       | euske wrote:
       | What do you call the art style like this? It reminds me of a game
       | called Va11-halla. I kind of like it, but it's frustrating that I
       | can't name what it is. I see random Japanese texts here and there
       | that are obviously made by non-Japanese people (they're awkward).
       | "Foreigner's image of Tokyo's city life"?
        
         | arvinsim wrote:
         | City-Pop?
        
           | amelius wrote:
           | It gives me an 80s vibe.
        
         | grae_QED wrote:
         | Lofi with a Cyberpunk/Vaporwave/Outrun backdrop.
        
         | fao_ wrote:
         | It seems to be a mix of Vapourwave and Lo-Fi
        
       | thescribbblr wrote:
       | 404 errors after tap to start
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | moralestapia wrote:
       | It's all fun and games 'til you learn that YouTube's terms don't
       | allow you to embed their player in any way that disables/hides
       | their UI and logos.
       | 
       | Source: A similar project I made like 8 years ago.
       | 
       | Edit: But don't get me wrong, I like it nonetheless!
        
         | hnarn wrote:
         | I guess that's when you double down and just scrape
         | Invidious[1] for the audio files.
         | 
         | edit: The Firefox extension "Privacy Redirect"[2] also uses
         | Invidious to automatically redirect all youtube links, and does
         | similar things for pages like reddit and twitter to their
         | respective "mirrors".
         | 
         | [1]: https://docs.invidious.io/Invidious-Instances.md
         | 
         | [2]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/privacy-
         | redir...
        
           | wcarss wrote:
           | For anyone else wondering "what the heck is invidious?", from
           | their github[1]: "Invidious is an alternative front-end to
           | YouTube." Cool!
           | 
           | But man, classic open source: the front page of those docs
           | says _nothing_ about what the heck the project is, just a
           | list of URLs to visit, and the main website[2] is just an
           | under-construction page with a link to the github repo.
           | 
           | 1 - https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
           | 
           | 2 - https://invidious.io/
        
             | gojomo wrote:
             | Remaining somewhat illegible probably helps the project
             | survive for the benefit of the cognoscenti.
        
               | toyg wrote:
               | ... and they say security by obscurity doesn't work! /s
        
             | galfarragem wrote:
             | Check https://redirect.invidious.io/ and try another
             | Invidious instance.
        
           | HEHENE wrote:
           | Wow, I had no idea about Invidious. This perfectly solves my
           | use case of needing a REST API to get MP3 urls for YouTube
           | videos. I was looking into building or finding a REST API for
           | youtube-dl, but this seems a lot easier.
        
             | hnarn wrote:
             | The mirrors frequently go offline from being blocked
             | though, so it may be easier to rely on youtube-dl depending
             | on how likely it is that you will be rate-limited.
             | 
             | You could of course also try and set up your own, private
             | Invidious instance and see what mileage you get from that.
        
               | andrepd wrote:
               | Yep! I do that and just hand the URL to friends.
        
         | anoncow wrote:
         | Do we need YouTube if we can host media (in this case MP3 and
         | animations) ourselves (and through CDNs)?
        
           | 7steps2much wrote:
           | No, you don't need YouTube. In fact, you almost never need
           | YouTube.
           | 
           | If you just want to host some files (like mp3s and
           | animations) you can toss them on a CDN.
           | 
           | If you need a bit more advanced features, like easy
           | embedding, a premade player, etc. you might wanna use Vimeo.
           | 
           | *HOWEVER* YouTube is fast, easy and takes care of pretty much
           | everything for you. This is not to be underestimated.
        
         | JansjoFromIkea wrote:
         | yep, I was trying to make some recreations of DVD menus a few
         | years ago and decided to host on youtube so it could be easily
         | added to.
         | 
         | Iirc my hack to hide the UI was replacing pausing videos with
         | an infinite loop of a millisecond (which was buggy as hell).
         | VideoJS with the youtube plugin was able to hide most
         | everything else.
        
       | ketanhwr wrote:
       | Nice one, but my CPU fans got really loud (normally this loud
       | when I play games) xD. I'm not a web developer, but I'm pretty
       | sure this is something that can be fixed :)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | Maxence wrote:
       | Hello there, I'm the guy who made https://lofimusic.app
       | 
       | Just wanted to tell you it looks good :), keep up the good work!
        
         | lloeki wrote:
         | I found then lost the reference to lofimusic.app, and could't
         | find it again until today, so I'm overjoyed to stumble upon it
         | again, as well as this new thing!
         | 
         | Thank you both, I love them both!
        
         | plexicle wrote:
         | Woah, great example for go-app/wasm. Love it!
        
         | chintan wrote:
         | Happy satisfied user of your app! Love all the imagery! Thank
         | You!
        
       | graderjs wrote:
       | Very cool! Love the "anime like" pictures :)
        
         | rataata_jr wrote:
         | Don't we all :)
        
       | sgsvnk wrote:
       | I love it, really nice!
        
       | caretak3r wrote:
       | Absolutely love this. Thank you!
        
       | l00sed wrote:
       | Who gets credit for the artwork? It's really cool. I feel like
       | all the channels/music are getting pulled from live lofi streams
       | that I listen to on YouTube on a day-to-day. But the artwork
       | isn't the same; so was that original for this project? Any idea
       | how they're made?
        
         | orange3xchicken wrote:
         | I wanna agree with this. I've seen a bunch of those animations
         | before..e.g. https://www.deviantart.com/kirokaze
         | 
         | and it would probably be great to give the original artists a
         | shout out.
        
       | burlesona wrote:
       | In case anyone is interested, you can get most of these exact
       | same playlists by searching "chillhop music" on Apple Music.
       | Probably on Spotify and others too. Very nice background music
       | for coding (for me anyway).
        
       | ricardodov wrote:
       | Nice game
        
       | Gollapalli wrote:
       | I love this!
       | 
       | Would love to see chat added. Then it'd really be a cafe.
        
       | teddyh wrote:
       | Those background images could really use some artist
       | attributions.
        
         | Uehreka wrote:
         | Yes, although I'd note that among people who listen to lofi
         | music, the "anime girl studying with rain outside the window"
         | animation is an extremely well known meme.
        
         | avian wrote:
         | Can't have contributions when the images likely aren't even
         | under a license that would allow use like this. I guess it's
         | better not to say where they are from and hope people don't
         | notice...
         | 
         | The image of the girl lying on the floor is a screencap from
         | the "Whisper of the Heart" movie. I doubt it's licensed.
         | Various "lo-fi" YouTube channels used to do that as well, but
         | got copyright strikes and changed to original artwork.
         | 
         | https://www.giantbomb.com/forums/anime-790045/is-studio-ghib...
        
           | gpas wrote:
           | Wikipedia has an article on lofi_girl/chilledcow channels
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lofi_Girl
           | 
           | > Dimitri chose the character of Shizuku Tsukishima from the
           | Studio Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart as the face of the
           | channel, with footage of her studying or writing used in the
           | streams. When the popularity of the streams ultimately led to
           | some getting taken down for copyright violations, Dimitri
           | decided to maintain the Ghibli-esque aesthetic but with an
           | original character and put out a call for artists.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | teddyh wrote:
           | > _a screencap from the "Whisper of the Heart" movie. I doubt
           | it's licensed._
           | 
           | Studio Ghibli _did_ release a lot of screenshots from many of
           | their movies about 6 months ago1, but this movie is _not_
           | among those included.
           | 
           | 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24564775
        
         | coolreader18 wrote:
         | Yep, I thought I recognized at least one of them from 1041uuu:
         | https://1041uuu.tumblr.com/post/104751238713
        
         | 627467 wrote:
         | Just the images?
        
         | xyzal wrote:
         | The streams should also be linked to.
        
           | dubcanada wrote:
           | The streams are just the name as a youtube video. For example
           | if you click the "lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study
           | to" in the bottom left (r what ever you are on) you'll see
           | all the streams. Copying that name and pasting it in Youtube
           | will show you the stream.
           | 
           | Though I do agree a link to them (since there is no mention
           | of Lofi Girl anywhere for example) would be nice.
        
             | linuz90 wrote:
             | I'll add a little link to open the related YouTube video,
             | it's much needed.
        
               | chromanoid wrote:
               | You are aware that it's usually a ToS violation to play
               | YouTube videos without showing the YouTube player?
               | https://developers.google.com/youtube/terms/required-
               | minimum...
        
               | slowmotiony wrote:
               | We're on hacker news and it's a cool tech project, who
               | cares about some corporation's ToS?
        
               | chromanoid wrote:
               | Just sayin'
               | 
               | Maybe they will care when they get their account and
               | maybe even any related accounts suspended.
               | 
               | I love lofi hip hop, so I wish good luck. But especially
               | because of the exposure this might end not nice for the
               | operators.
        
               | klyrs wrote:
               | The project has a better chance of survival if it follows
               | the rules of the platform sourcing their content. I think
               | that warning somebody that they're standing on a cliff
               | edge is the polite thing to do, even if the cliff is man-
               | made.
        
               | Schlaefer wrote:
               | We're on artist news and it's a cool music project, who
               | cares about someone's software license.
        
       | hnbad wrote:
       | I really like the video filter effect. Clever use of layered
       | background images to achieve that VHS aesthetic.
       | 
       | Just a tip to reduce CPU usage: it's probably better to replace
       | the large GIFs with videos. WebM not only has a much smaller file
       | size but also makes the fans spin less. Most "GIFs" you see these
       | days (e.g. on social media or Slack) are actually videos.
        
       | jderick wrote:
       | Nicely done. Reminds me of an idea I think would be really cool,
       | a site sort of like tiktok, but instead of focusing on original
       | content, it focused on letting you find interesting video clips
       | to pair with your own music. Sort of like how spotify has gifs
       | now, except you could customize them for your own music and share
       | them with others.
        
       | boringg wrote:
       | Finally something awesome! Love the backdrops - reminds me of
       | soma.fm
        
         | cityzen wrote:
         | Groove Salad was always my jam
        
       | codethief wrote:
       | Cool project! :) Is there any way to link to rooms & songs
       | directly?
        
         | codethief wrote:
         | Edit: Just noticed that one can tweet the "station" and extract
         | the link there.
         | 
         | It would be really cool if the URL changed depending on the
         | station, so that copy-pasting it just works.
        
       | imwillofficial wrote:
       | I enjoyed this a lot, a great candidate for a native app.
        
       | jarnix wrote:
       | I'm not into elevator music but I understand some people might
       | enjoy it. Do you listen to this while working?
        
         | b0afc375b5 wrote:
         | I love lofi, but I prefer silence when working. I listen to
         | lofi mostly when contemplating about the meaning of life.
         | 
         | I wouldn't classify lofi as elevator music, however. But I love
         | "chill" music in general.
        
       | Lvl999Noob wrote:
       | How does pause / play work? Does it pause for everyone in the
       | room?
        
         | linuz90 wrote:
         | Nope, just for you!
        
       | zelphirkalt wrote:
       | Could the CPU load be reduced? If I am only on the page, not even
       | playing any music yet (probably because something is blocked), I
       | get 1 core up at 100% CPU load. This can't all be for an animated
       | background image, can it?
        
         | linuz90 wrote:
         | Ouch you're totally right. I want to add an option to have
         | static JPGs instead of GIFs. Already added to the backlog.
        
           | elithrar wrote:
           | Video may be cheap, too: h.264 or WebM are relatively low
           | cost on even reasonably modern devices.
        
             | dlivingston wrote:
             | To go in the opposite direction, if you wanted to add an
             | option for people fine with large CPU/GPU expenditure
             | (i.e., if this were playing on a dedicated TV in an actual
             | cafe), it might be fun to add a WebGL canvas and make
             | lofi/vaporwave-inspired effects [0].
             | 
             | [0]: http://hands.wtf/rad
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | Why would you ever target wasting CPU/GPU when better
               | alternatives are available?
        
               | ajkjk wrote:
               | It might be cool.
        
               | artful-hacker wrote:
               | I actually really like this feature when playing music
               | for a whole room on my OLED TV. People like watching the
               | fancy graphics and I get to dodge a tiny little bit of
               | burn in.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | You missed the part of better alternatives. I didn't mean
               | to turn off the anim, just switch it to a more efficient
               | method of doing it.
        
             | moystard wrote:
             | I would go for videos + options to go with static assets.
             | You could pause background video playback when the tab is
             | not active.
        
             | jordache wrote:
             | Video cheaper than animated gif?
        
               | entropicdrifter wrote:
               | Yeah, lower bandwidth requirements and most computers/all
               | smartphones have dedicated video decoding hardware,
               | especially for h264.
        
               | prophesi wrote:
               | Hinted at with lower bandwidth requirements, but the
               | biggest win with video is their stellar compression. GIFs
               | store every single color value, which is why they get so
               | huge so quick.
        
               | app4soft wrote:
               | Yep. For example, here is _Fill 's GIFs_ site[0], where
               | comic animation on pages represented as video instead of
               | GIF.[1]                   ...         <video autoplay=""
               | loop="" muted="">           <source
               | src="/video/aa3d713c20ba03cc3f87b36e9a947857.mp4"
               | type="video/mp4">         </video>         ...
               | 
               | [0] https://fill.com.ua/
               | 
               | [1] https://fill.com.ua/gif/zagostrennya
        
         | elwell wrote:
         | Gotta pay for hosting with some monero mining
        
         | ArcturianDeath wrote:
         | So efficiency, much wow
        
         | grae_QED wrote:
         | I wonder if they're crypto-mining.
        
         | axaxs wrote:
         | Same. I use a miniPC with a loud (by design constraints) fan
         | when load is pegged. It ran like a jet engine on this site.
        
         | Deukhoofd wrote:
         | Looks like it is, if I remove the 4 gifs stacked on top of each
         | other CPU usage drops massively.
        
           | dubcanada wrote:
           | It appears that every GIF frame is a Chrome paint (which
           | makes sense) but a way to make the GIF static or turn off the
           | GIFs would reduce paints down to basically nothing.
        
           | somebodythere wrote:
           | If it's only a few frames you might be able to arrange them
           | vertically in a PNG and animate background-position to get
           | the same effect for cheaper.
           | 
           | Correction: you want to use transform to force creation of a
           | new rendering layer, then when adjusting the rendered
           | position of the element using transform will not cause a
           | repaint.
        
             | rozab wrote:
             | Ouch. What's wrong with APNG?
             | 
             | https://caniuse.com/apng
        
               | [deleted]
        
       | tehnub wrote:
       | Reminds me of this project, titled "Drive through cities in the
       | browser while listening to local radio stations", which I use
       | quite frequently.
       | 
       | link: https://driveandlisten.herokuapp.com/ recent HN discussion:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23543043
        
       | macando wrote:
       | The site's artwork is amazing. Love the details. It seeems that
       | the transition effect when changing channels is generated and
       | genuine each time, instead of randomly selected from a library.
        
       | grimgrin wrote:
       | sick, i like your ui @linuz90
       | 
       | i was reaching for a way to get a true full screen. maybe bind
       | something to fire an Element.requestFullScreen() on #root or even
       | just html
       | 
       | also i hit esc to hide the thing, then tried hitting escape again
       | to reveal? idk if there is a way to do that or if it matters
       | 
       | cuuute lil tomato timer
        
       | lifeformed wrote:
       | Cool but it'd be nice to have track and artist names, out of
       | respect to the artists.
        
       | codethief wrote:
       | Any plans to include a small chat feature? I normally don't like
       | using chats on websites at all but for some reason I would
       | absolutely love to interact with other people that are listening
       | to the same music at the same time as me.
        
         | jason_zig wrote:
         | If you have spotify check out JQBX (https://www.jqbx.fm)
        
       | josh_carterPDX wrote:
       | I love that these type of apps are popping back up. However, I
       | fear that the RIAA is going to ruin all the fun like they've done
       | in the past. I used to run a site in which we just played random
       | music with no ads/no revenue. We still got a cease and desist
       | letter giving us no choice but to shut it down. I get why they
       | exist, but they are more about stomping out sites rather than
       | working them to figure out a path that is lucrative for everyone
       | involved.
        
         | criddell wrote:
         | Is there some way to limit streamed music to stuff that has a
         | suitable license? I'm thinking specifically of Creative Commons
         | stuff.
         | 
         | Or couldn't you make a front end that pulls audio from Spotify
         | or some other paid service? I want to see ideas like this
         | flourish _and_ support artists.
        
           | anthk wrote:
           | >Is there some way to limit streamed music to stuff that has
           | a suitable license? I'm thinking specifically of Creative
           | Commons stuff.
           | 
           | https://libre.fm
        
           | josh_carterPDX wrote:
           | Unfortunately the only way to get around this is to have
           | agreements in place with independent artists for the site
           | that you could then provide to the RIAA when they come
           | knocking. If you post music by artists signed to a label it's
           | out of the artists' hand even if you attempt to put something
           | in place directly with the artist. The RIAA is aggressive and
           | well funded. Their entire objective is to make sure artists
           | get paid whenever their music is played regardless of whether
           | the site is free/no ads.
           | 
           | EDIT: Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, etc do not provide APIs
           | to embed their players into other sites without some sort of
           | licensing agreement in place.
        
             | criddell wrote:
             | Spotify has a pretty rich API:
             | 
             | https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/web-
             | api/referenc...
        
               | josh_carterPDX wrote:
               | Interesting.
        
       | wantsanagent wrote:
       | I love this UI. The seamless channel transitions just feel
       | perfect. Not like I'm on the modern web at all.
        
       | noisy_boy wrote:
       | Nice project :) For my own use, I keep a list of such youtube
       | stations in a file and use a script to play through them (I can
       | specify by srl no., shuffle, play a random station etc). Much
       | more lighter on the system as I use mpv to just play the audio
       | stream. Also, allows me to repurpose the script for various lists
       | for various genre.
        
         | gnosticrose wrote:
         | I have one too. Is your code open? Ty
        
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