The life of a record
A record is not a chat. It is cut, pressed, heard, judged, fixed, then released into a room. This brief owns that path. Product glass stays with Sophia. Famous product stays with Senna. Super M owns what the stages have to mean.
- 1 Cut · Booth
- 2 Press · wait
- 3 Reveal · first listen
- 4 Judge · now playing
- 5 Fix · by section
- 6 Release · Crate
1 · Cut the Booth
Front door is chat. The lane is a choice: Demo (~90s) for drafts, Master for keepers — labeled words, not letters. Starter chips come back every session. Right panel is the song, not eight collapsed cards of every session.
Was (Jul 13 audit): lane hardwired server-side so every first cut is a multi-minute Master. Lyricist/thinking dropdowns on the glass. Starter chips die after message one.
2 · Press the wait
The lathe can stay. Around it: stage names the server already records, an honest ETA, ping offered at the only moment anyone would say yes. The ping lands on the reveal, not the library.
Was: animation with no stage, percent, or ETA. Push buried in Settings. Deep-link to /library.
3 · Reveal the Pressing
First listen is the press. Art goes full-bleed. Hook plays. One next move: Share / Make the Master / keep cutting. No letter grade at the promise. Gold only if the taste meter actually awards it.
Was: silent swap to a 52px row. Art never larger than a 60px label. A red F could land at the exact moment of delivery.
4 · Judge now playing
Judging happens where listening happens. Heart, thumbs, “what's off” (Vocal / Lyrics / Mix / Energy) on the player. Taste meter as instrument panel — weakest score gets the fix link. Example layout only: Hook 9.2 · Lyrics 8.1 · Vocals 6.2.
Was: intelligence behind an unlabeled 16px edge chip. Feedback write-only; only admin dashboards read it.
5 · Fix by section
Tap the section (Intro / Verse / Chorus), say the change. Repaint in place or cut a new take. A/B, keep the winner, archive the rest. One panel, not three verbs on three surfaces.
Was: drag-select a bare waveform seven steps deep. Tweak / remix / repaint disconnected. Near-duplicate takes pile in the Crate with no compare.
6 · Release the Crate
This is the intel stage. Publish is explicit, badged, reversible. Demo/Master on every row. Grade sortable in the Crate. Link plays come back on the row — plays, not views. Recipients get art, lyrics, a real preview card. A record is not released until it can live in a crate and be played in a room.
Was: “Share Link” silently flipped isPublic; unshare had zero client callers. shareViewCount / sharePlayCount collected and shown nowhere. Grade hidden in Details. Demo/Master buried in overflow.
Build order that actually moves a record: Release honesty first (days) → Press + Cut (a week) → the Pressing (a week) → Judge + Fix (the long loop). Do not restyle to get there. Same Night + red. Do not ship this as a sidecar. Default UI only, when Senna cuts it.
Share-play counts stay off any public board until they are live and sourced. The Jul 13 file:line receipts stay in the original audit; this brief does not reprint them.