Slipmat was born in 2016 as a better functioning alternative to then dying Mixify streaming platform. The original idea was to make live streaming DJ sets easy and listening to them fun. Initially we succeeded in both, but over the years we kept adding on more and more features on top of the old code and eventually things just became too messy and complex. It felt like we were living in a never-ending construction site, potentially beautiful but scaffolding and random bits and bobs all overt the place, all the time. It was time to take a step back and evaluate what the community actually needs and how it could be built.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past two years. It’s been a long road, but I think it has also been worth it. We’ve got something really cool cooking here, and I can’t wait to start testing things out soon with a larger audience.
What’s Coming
The current state of live streaming online has watered down to almost every site offering some kind of RTMP-based live streaming using a simple video with 15-30s lag together with some kind of very rudimentary chat. This technology has existed for over ten years. When we started working on Slipmat v3 we realized that we were trying to build a faster horse, when what we actually wanted was a car.
The next generation of Slipmat builds on a fairly new technology called WebRTC which is what powers things like Zoom and Google Meet (formerly Hangouts). It enables sub-second delay in the video and allows sending studio quality sound. There are also downsides of course; the technology is still young and the browser support and tooling is still evolving fast. It will take a lot of work and time to get all the pieces together just right, and to be honest, many artists won’t probably need or even want these new tools (which is why we won’t be sunsetting the old RTMP Frankie streamer — it will continue to work in the future as well).
But the possibilities with WebRTC streams are endless and very exciting! Here are some of the things I’m personally most excited about:
- Streaming without any software; all you need is a browser — even mobile works (but OBS works of course as well)
- Simple and zero-lag remote live B2B DJ streams; play live sets with your mates remotely
- Real-time participation with audience members; take in video or audio calls right from the event itself, your guests need only a phone or a computer
- New kinds of immersive 2-way remote events; hear and see audience reactions in real time as you play remotely to anywhere in the world
These things are not just ideas, they are actually possible and most we have already tested in proof-of-concept events. I’m super excited to get to learn and discover all these new possibilities with the awesome Slipmat community of brilliant artists and music lovers!
Slipmat v3 In a Nutshell
There’s so much in the works right now that it would take forever explaining everything at once, so instead I’ll just post the executive bullet points and dive deeper into each of the things in later posts. (Follow me on Twitter and Mastodon for more frequent updates!)
The major (technical) parts of the new Slipmat v3 platform are:
- Core (user management, etc)
- Dancefloor (the UI for the live events)
- Circus (audio chat)
- Chat (text chat)
- Stage Box (live control tool for artists)
- Requests (tool for taking and making song requests)
- Marketing (tool for growing your fanbase using multi-channel communications)
Slipmat v3 is developed on GitHub. We already have several packages open sourced and the plan is to split as much of the useful core functionality to open source packages as possible. Our stack is Python / Django in the backend, and Vue / TypeScript in the front.
At the moment 95% of all the work is done by just one developer, me, but I’m hoping that I could find helping hands from the community to make the work go faster (and be more fun). Due to the obviously very small time budget the work is progressing slowly but surely. If you want to help and join the team, dm me on Twitter or Backstage! (All help is welcome! For example social media curators, testers, and native English speakers are always appreciated.)
Schedule / Roadmap
The development work is ongoing and there is no hard release data yet. The official release schedule is when it’s ready. Again, if you want to help getting there faster, dm me on Twitter of Backstage and join the team!
That said, the first alpha testing using the actual new code started in early December 2022, and the first full live event with live audience was streamed in 21 January 2023. We’re getting there! The next step is to open Slipmat v3 for volunteer early testers (without any weird gate-keeping — it will be open for everyone) soon, probably in 1-3 months.
My biggest failure to date has been the flaky communication about all the development that has been happening. There has been lots of posts on Backstage, posts on Twitter, various Discord messages, and lots chit chat on live event chats on Slipmat, but nothing properly planned. My plan for 2023 is to figure this out and at least post regular technical (which are much easier to write) updates along the way.
Stay tuned, keep in touch, see you on Slipmat!