⚔️ The Circuit is coming, plus a week of updates

Plenty landed since the last one, some of it never posted here until now. The headline piece has been running quietly in staff testing and opens to everyone this week. Here is what is new, by who it is for.

The Circuit (opening to everyone this week)

A new kind of contest, built to run on a schedule instead of as a one-off. Each round: make a track for the theme, then judge pairs, two songs at a time, picking the better one a handful of times. You have to hear both before you pick, there is a small minimum so everyone pulls their weight, and you can change any pick before voting closes. A ranking falls out of the head to heads, the top three get a Discord podium with links to the songs, and points roll up into a pinned, always-current season leaderboard. It has been in an internal staff test run on real songs and real votes, and it goes live to everyone this coming week.

For everyone

XP is on your profile. A counter in the top bar with a tap-through of your recent activity. You earn it for listening now, and soon for voting and placing in The Circuit. It will unlock some perks down the line. We are still experimenting with and tuning it, so it may get reset before then. Points for taking part, not a currency, and separate from Skips.
A rebuilt song page. Cleaner layout with generated cover art, and play, favourite, share, and add-or-submit to a playlist or stream all right there. Every song has a comment thread now too.
Song stories and lyric sheets. Attach the story behind a track and read it before you listen, under Community → Stories. Post lyrics for anyone to turn into a song, with covers that link back, under Community → Lyric sheets.
A new now-playing dock. The old docked sidebar is gone. What is playing lives in a cleaner dock, the music video sits in a tile you can dismiss and bring back, and the full Stage is one tap away.
A tidier contests hub, and a fuller homepage. Contests and Leaderboards are their own tabs with season boards that load as you scroll. On the homepage you can star pinned playlists and play individual featured tracks. Links, stars, and real cover art are consistent across track rows and playlist cards everywhere.

For streamers and hosts

Co-hosts. Bring someone on to run a stream with you, for one show or a whole series. They share the controls and are credited next to your name everywhere.
A fairer play order. An optional weighted queue that gives people who have waited longer or been skipped a stronger chance to play next.
Streamer Insights. A host dashboard: who is spending, who might be drifting off, and how evenly air time is spread.

For curators and creators

Submission threads, and moving submissions. Feedback on a submission is a back-and-forth thread now, and you can move a submitted track to another of your playlists without a resubmit.
Arrange your creator page. Drag your public page into the order you want, live, and it saves as visitors see it.
Submitting shares a track. Submitting makes a track public so it can be played and voted on, with a heads-up first if it was private.

Still plenty cooking that is not ready to show. Written by a language model again; the humans are heads-down on the bigger pieces. See you at the next one.

The Circuit (opening to everyone this week)

For everyone

XP is on your profile. A counter in the top bar with a tap-through of your recent activity. You earn it for listening now, and soon for voting and placing in The Circuit. It will unlock some perks down the line. We are still experimenting with and tuning it, so it may get reset before then. Points for taking part, not a currency, and separate from Skips.

A rebuilt song page. Cleaner layout with generated cover art, and play, favourite, share, and add-or-submit to a playlist or stream all right there. Every song has a comment thread now too.

Song stories and lyric sheets. Attach the story behind a track and read it before you listen, under Community → Stories. Post lyrics for anyone to turn into a song, with covers that link back, under Community → Lyric sheets.

A new now-playing dock. The old docked sidebar is gone. What is playing lives in a cleaner dock, the music video sits in a tile you can dismiss and bring back, and the full Stage is one tap away.

A tidier contests hub, and a fuller homepage. Contests and Leaderboards are their own tabs with season boards that load as you scroll. On the homepage you can star pinned playlists and play individual featured tracks. Links, stars, and real cover art are consistent across track rows and playlist cards everywhere.

For streamers and hosts

Co-hosts. Bring someone on to run a stream with you, for one show or a whole series. They share the controls and are credited next to your name everywhere.

A fairer play order. An optional weighted queue that gives people who have waited longer or been skipped a stronger chance to play next.

Streamer Insights. A host dashboard: who is spending, who might be drifting off, and how evenly air time is spread.

For curators and creators

Submission threads, and moving submissions. Feedback on a submission is a back-and-forth thread now, and you can move a submitted track to another of your playlists without a resubmit.

Arrange your creator page. Drag your public page into the order you want, live, and it saves as visitors see it.

Submitting shares a track. Submitting makes a track public so it can be played and voted on, with a heads-up first if it was private.

Still plenty cooking that is not ready to show. Written by a language model again; the humans are heads-down on the bigger pieces. See you at the next one.