Music League and the Internet That Could’ve Been
Hello again! Summer in Seattle has come to a close 😢 I’ve been rushing to squeeze in all my daytime activities while also dusting off my writing cap. Turns out I hadn’t touched this blog all summer, but honestly, I needed that time away from the computer.
Tbh, I’m still trying to savor the last of the PNW’s long days before they quickly slip away. Still, I wanna yap about one of the things bringing me tons of joy lately: an app called Music League.
The concept is simple but brilliant: You invite a bunch of friends to join your league, each round has a theme, and everyone submits a song that fits. Once the round closes, votes come in, and out pops a collaborative playlist: personal, human-made, and usually full of surprises. As a bonus, someone gets crowned the winner at the end.
This silly little app feels magical in a way I didn’t know I missed. It reminds me of the internet I remember from the early 2000s; fun, connective, made just for shits and giggles. (Who remembers that dope Space Jam website? The entire interwebs was like that.)
It’s the kind of place where engagement doesn’t feel carefully engineered. Music League knows its limitations, and that’s what makes it endearing.
That’s not to say it’s perfect. Far from it. Ads are everywhere, the UI can be clunky, and there’s a bit of a learning curve. Like the time I tried changing the settings because everyone had submitted their votes hours before the deadline. Impatiently, I thought I could set it to close early once everyone was done, but nope: there’s no option to simply end a round, and new settings only kick in after the round is over, ugh. The product designer in me can’t help but notice some areas where the experience could be smoother– but those are thoughts for another day.
The rules can even feel a little brutal. Recently, my group learned (the hard way) that if you don’t vote, any votes you gained on your song get thrown out. A friend lost more than 10 votes on one song in a single round. And yet… everyone is still engaged.
For me, the best part is the way it’s rekindled connection with friends who live far away. I have so many friends scattered across the country, and I’ve struggled to keep in touch in a way that wasn’t weighed down by the loaded “so… how are you?”
Instead, you get to share music, laugh at the randomness of everyone’s picks, and rediscover tracks you hadn’t thought about in decades. Sometimes it even sparks a random text thread about a song or about the silly rules we invent in our heads for how we’ll pick what to vote for.
It’s playful. It’s lightweight. It makes connection across distance easier for me.
And the playlist itself? It feels so much less stale than Spotify’s playlists “made for me”. I can finally escape the endless cycle of Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter. (Long live these pop divas, but I am TIRED, algorithmic overlords. My ears need something new.)
Every app seems determined to hold your time and attention hostage, with little to show for it. Music League feels different. You walk away with something tangible: an actual human-made playlist. Plus all the intangibles: back-and-forth texts, friendly competition, a renewed love of old music, and the thrill of discovering new tunes.
For someone recovering from burnout, that feels like a small kind of magic– proof that the internet can still bring careless joy without demanding everything in return 😌
