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by Cieric 688 days ago
While the project does look nice to use and modify. I'm not sure I personally would have posted it yet.

- The instructions seem not to be the best to get it up and running (e.g. "cd not-shazam" and just a few lines later "cd not-shazam/client")

- MongoDB is needed but information on how to hook it up/use it are absent (I would make the DB swapable and provide something less intrusive like sqlite)

- If replacing MongoDB is not possible, I would provide a dockerfile and a docker compose to allow easy startup and testing.

- The client npm install has 8 critical vulnerabilities, these might not actually matter but it makes me hesitant to continue testing

- You might not care about the patent or the copyright, but I would still change the name at the very least. Github itself is located in the US and will remove the project if they receives a DMCA.

- Last, this might not be as important, I would add a way to add songs from wav files. Not everything I'd want to test this with is on spotify or youtube.

I'm not saying this to discourage you or anything, I just think the project needs that little extra bit of polish. Minor things will cause people to discredit or ignore a project. If I get around to it I might make a PR for the project. I want to experiment with audio matching outside of the music space, and your project seems like it'll be the easiest to modify.

Edit: Formatting

2 comments

Thank you for the time you took to provide such detailed feedback. I really appreciate your honest input. You've raised some valid points that I hadn't really considered.

I agree that the project could definitely use some polishing. I'll prioritize improving the setup instructions and look into adding a file-based DB for flexibility, as well as resolving the npm vulnerabilities. Adding support for directly fingerprinting wav files is a great idea and something I'll prioritize, too.

Regarding the project name, I understand the potential legal implications and will definitely change it. I'd appreciate any suggestions you might have.

I'm excited about the possibility of your contributions. Please, feel free to open a PR whenever you're ready.

Thanks again for your feedback!

Why not use sqlite instead of mongodb?
I initially chose MongoDB for its flexibility, but I'm open to exploring SQLite as an alternative. I'll research its JSON capabilities and evaluate its suitability for this project.
You post it on HN to get invaluable comments like yours. Good writeup!