John Knific and his team are passionate about music. Knific is president of CitizenGroove LLC, a local Cleveland company that provides web solutions for serious musicians – enabling musicians to bridge their academic and professional careers.
CitizenGroove needed a way to transcode the thousands of audio files it receives everyday so that they could be accessed in a standard filetype. This transcoding needed to be done in such a way that it did not disrupt the regular operation of the site by adding server load. Working with the CitizenGroove development team, the Qube Lab architected a solution and developed it using Django, the Python web development framework used by CitizenGroove’s team. This solution consisted of a single application (in the Django sense of the word) that is run on a separate server that accepts requests from the site to transcode files as they are uploaded. The application uses ffmpeg, an open source, cross- platform library for transcoding audio and video, and the simplicity of Amazon Web Services to accomplish transcoding at minimal cost to CitizenGroove.
According to Knific, “CitizenGroove was very pleased with the work done by Qube Lab. They delivered exactly what we needed at a fraction of what most third-party development groups charge. We were a unique situation. CitizenGroove already had two full-time web developers on staff, but we couldn’t keep up with the demands of our backlog. With Qube, we were able to easily section off a “modular” project, and reduce the pressure on our internal team. As a recent graduate of CWRU and young business owner, I respect how Nick Berente has brought together young talent and showed them how to function as a professional software development group. I implore every entrepreneur to take advantage of the organized, energetic, and intelligent Qube Team… before they all graduate, get hired by the big guys, and you can’t afford them anymore.”
According to Nick Berente, director of the Qube Lab, “The project for with CitizenGroove was a great experience. John and his team are professional and very capable young entrepreneurs. CitizenGroove’s ePortfolio web application is precisely the type of niche technology platform that will shape the next wave of professional social computing. Also, their Digital Auditions application is an elegant and powerful technology. We are thrilled to be involved with their organization.”
Matt Briancon, developer for the Qube Lab, summed it up: “Working with the developers at CitizenGroove was a breeze. They are good people, excellent developers, and they were a pleasure to work with.”
CitizenGroove
CitizenGroove LLC (http://www.citizengroove.com) is a new service to help musicians while bridging the gap between academia and the music industry. While the internet is lined with music sites designed by businesses following the trends of the week, CitizenGroove was built by college music majors turned professional musicians. Born out of a dorm room at Case Western Reserve University, CitizenGroove has grown considerably since its founding in 2008. It is the vision of CG to create a professional networking solution for content creators, interconnecting artists, academic institutions, and the music industry on a single web-based platform.
