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submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Hi all, I’ve been working on a music recommendation service that pairs with navidrome (think of it as a personal pandora).

I’ve also built an iOS app for it that I am trying to beta test. Even to use TestFlight, you still need to go through Apple’s approval process.

The reviewers are requiring access to a working server to test it, demo videos aren’t being accepted.

I really don’t want to have to set up an external host, as 1) authentication is a bit limited 2) you need a large music collection and I’m not comfortable opening that up on the internet.

Has anyone dealt with something similar?

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

This costs me not just time, but money. I know it isn’t much but is really a big pain. The biggest issue is that the app and recommendation algorithm isn’t going to be useful with 20 songs. You really need 1000s of songs to actually use the app…

[-] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

You don't need to give them a premier experience, you aren't trying to sell them on the features of your app. It just needs to function.

Load in those 20 royalty free songs and let the algorithm suck at picking the next of the 20.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The biggest issue is that the app and recommendation algorithm isn’t going to be useful with 20 songs.

They are not testing for usefulness.

If your basic logic runs with 5 songs, then give them 5, not 20.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

For the money angle, something like a Digital Ocean droplet would be appropriate here. They are $4/mo and you don't even need to run the thing all the time, just when you need an app version approved.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Oracle Cloud offers 4 ARM cores, 24GB RAM and 200GB storage in their free tier (IIRC you can even divide that into 4 separate VMs). Very useful for cheap testing, if your code/server supports ARM.

Even then, a small underpowered x64 VM for testing purposes is often free on all hyperscalers. Not the fastest server, but depending on the use case?

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

I don't want to be the asshole but 3 days of a super underpowered VM (it can be a oracle free tier for example) is a drop in the ocean compared to the $100/year/perpetuity that apple wants from devs

Main problem might be the content, as they might think that it's going to be used for piracy

Maybe try to spin it as "Kevin macleod recommendation engine" by filling it with this content https://archive.org/details/incompetech-all-the-music-2020/page/n2/mode/1up

this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
27 points (96.6% liked)

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