Ryan
One night in college, I was downtown Milwaukee with some friends. We were at a popular bar in the area, and had arrived pretty early - who knowns why. Regardless, this bar already had a DJ playing music. There were like 15 people in there, tops, so I was a little confused by that right away. We had a couple drinks, the night went on, and at this point I was ready to request the first song that would surely get everyone on their feet.
I approached the DJ table, and asked him to play my request. “Yea, sure man. I’ll queue it up”. Great. In a couple minutes, everyone will be ready to dance. So I just wait.....and wait...and wait.
“What the hell?” I thought. It’s been an hour. There’s barely anyone in here, why can’t he just play my song before he starts his set? My friends agree that it’s a good choice. So I request it again...
“Yea man, it’s on the list”.
On the list? C’mon. My thoughts were this:
a.) Everyone wants to hear this song.
b.) There’s not a huge crowd, so we aren’t interrupting your routine.
c.) What are they paying this guy, because he sucks.
And then it kind of slapped me in the face: technology can automate all of this, and people could choose what they want to hear. We can hail taxis and order groceries on command - why is a song request so archaic?
TL;DR - A DJ wouldn’t play the song I wanted, so I made an app that automates the whole bar’s music and lets patrons control the queue.