Jukebox

Free alternative to Spotify collaborative playlists

Music

Spotify

Open Source

GitHub

I have terrible music taste and kept getting booed off the aux, so I built Jukebox: a free, collaborative playlist maker for everyone.

Hey Product Hunt,

I have the kind of music taste that gets you kicked off the aux at a party. I'm a big fan of long, obscure mixtapes from artists like Ryan Celsius and Keifer Gr33n, which... doesn't always go over well in a group setting.

During long car rides and house parties, I was sick of a) my music getting vetoed and b) having to constantly grab my phone to field song requests and queue them up. It kills the vibe. I know Spotify has a collaborative feature, but I don't use it, and many of my friends don't either. I needed something simple and platform-agnostic.

So, I built Jukebox.

Check it out here: jukeboxhq.com .

It’s a super simple web app that turns any device with a browser into a shared jukebox.

1. You create a "box."
2. You share the link.
3. Your friends can add songs right from their own phones. No app, no account needed.

The story behind it... (aka "Code as Therapy")

In my day job, I'm the founder of a startup called Trieve. We're currently going through a pivot, which, if you've ever been there, you know is a massive toll on mental health. Building something just for fun, with zero pressure to make money, was the perfect form of therapy. Jukebox is 100% free, has no ads, and is fully open-source.

I also set two personal goals for this project:

1. **Build something "pretty."** I'm historically weak on design, so I challenged myself to build something stylized. I went with a neo-brutalist look and had fun adding details like sparkles on the title, buttery smooth animations with Framer Motion, and a draggable queue.
2. **Push my limits with AI.** I wanted to see how much AI could genuinely speed up development. It was amazing for iterating on the UI—I could just prompt what I wanted instead of sweating over every CSS detail. It wasn't a magic bullet, but it was a massive accelerant.

Here are the key features:

* ✅ **100% Free, No Ads, & Open Source:** Just a fun tool for everyone. (MIT License).
* 🚫 **No Accounts Needed:** Completely anonymous. Just create a box and share the link.
* 🎶 **YouTube Powered:** Access a massive library of music.
* ⚖️ **Fair Queueing:** The app automatically alternates songs between people. If person A adds two songs and person B adds one, B's song goes between A's. It scales infinitely!
* 💅 **Modern Stack & Design:** Built with React/TS, Node.js, and Docker for easy self-hosting if you're into that.

I just launched it and would love for you to check it out, break it, and give me some feedback. Let me know what you think of the design and if it's something you'd use on your next road trip.

Thanks for reading my story! Hope it helps someone else avoid getting kicked off the aux.

-Nick