where casset is going

Roadmap.

What's shipped, what's active, what's parked, and how the product moves toward audiovisual music identity.

Casset is moving from hook-first music profiles toward audiovisual music identity and artist homes for the generative media era. The shipped primitives are real: audio gating, paid collection, Side B/Listening Rooms, drops, browser-side video export, visual packs, profile provenance badges, co-cassets, realtime presence, canonical release manifests, permissions, provenance, lineage, and agent-readable routes. The roadmap discipline is to make those systems orbit Profile Worlds, Hook Objects, Release Rituals, Listening Rooms, and the quiet release context beneath them.

Shipped

High-level product chapters that are in production today. Each one maps to a thick slice of functionality — not a single feature. Implementation detail lives in the linked docs.

Profile World core

shippedv1

The foundation. Creators get a Profile World, a casset object, and tracks with artist-chosen hooks. Public listeners hear the hook; collectors or members unlock deeper access.

Profile-first identity, retro cassette aesthetic, mobile-first.
Artist-chosen preview window per track; gated both client-side and at the audio proxy.
Streaming platform links (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube) surfaced inline.

Paid collection + Stripe Connect

shippedv2

Artists get paid. Apple Pay, Stripe Checkout fallback, direct payouts to connected accounts, guest checkout, and a webhook pipeline that keeps entitlement grants idempotent across three redundant paths.

Apple Pay via the Payment Request API; Stripe Checkout for everyone else.
Stripe Connect direct charges — platform takes a fee, artist gets paid instantly.
Referral tracking: collectors share unique links; attribution is one row per collector per casset.

Listening Room / Side B

shippedv3

Every casset has a room/community layer visible to collectors and members. Real-time activity, comments, tipping, and share attribution are the early presence layer around the music.

SSE + Redis acceleration for live collects / tips / shares — authoritative in Postgres.
Free membership (join without collecting) unlocks Side B without a purchase.
Tip modal routes PaymentIntents to the artist's Stripe Connect account.

Release quests / drops

shippedv3+

Artists can fund time-boxed participation campaigns. Strategically, drops stay peripheral unless they strengthen a Hook Object, Listening Room, or Release Ritual.

Hybrid payouts: tiered prizes for the top N + a performance pool distributed by per-view score.
Metrics ingestion across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, with manual fallback and fraud scoring.
Drop Plans — recurring monthly drops on autopilot; promoters subscribe and get notified.
Intelligence Layer post-campaign coaching in the artist's voice, backed by OpenAI with a rule-based fallback.

Hook Object sharing

shippedongoing

The Hook Object is the unit that travels. Artists export vertical share videos from the browser; fans submit clips; each exported artifact should point back to the canonical Profile World and Listening Room.

1080×1920 client-side export via Canvas + WebCodecs + Meyda + mp4-muxer. No server ffmpeg.
Fan clip submissions with upload + TikTok-link ingestion and per-track moderation state.
Artist-funded bounties with Stripe Connect transfers to winning fans, including non-artist user payouts.

Desktop experience + retro skins

shippedv4 → v5

A real desktop surface. Persistent sidebar, client-side casset switching, timed emoji reactions on the scrubber, collector downloads, artist bonus media, unified settings. Plus swappable retro skins.

Seamless in-app casset switching without full-page navigation.
Old School mode — iTunes Music Store 2003 skin with a CRT fuzz transition and a click-wheel mini player.
Player skins: iPod Classic, Game Boy Color, Cassette Tape — persisted locally, no backend state.

Identity, provenance & sharing

shippedv6 + oauth

How creators show up, how listeners find them, and how everything travels. Multi-provider auth, handle system, profile badges, credits, and share-output primitives.

Auth via email, Spotify OAuth (PKCE), Apple Sign-In, Google OAuth.
Handle claiming with a reserved-username allowlist + real-time availability checks.
Social link pills, streaming platform icons, AI/No-AI profile badges, share-link short URLs, OG cards regenerated on edit.
Credits ledger for PWA install rewards and admin grants; foundation for future paid unlocks.

Canonical release foundation

shippedv7

Release manifests, contributors, permissions, provenance, lineage, Base anchoring, and agent-readable routes now sit under the cinematic product as quiet trust infrastructure.

Release, ReleaseVersion, ReleaseManifest, ReleaseAnchor, Contributor, Split, PermissionPolicy, ProvenanceEvent, DerivativeLink, and AgentAccessPolicy models.
Agent APIs for manifest, DNA, provenance, lineage, permission checks, license/access, and derivative registration.
Internal Release DNA dossier surface for owners, with Base anchoring framed as proof infrastructure rather than product identity.

Active + parked

Active operating priorities and parked bets. The source docs live in the repo; this page keeps the product direction legible inside the app.

Product Philosophy

source

The strategic source of truth: artist homes, Profile Worlds, Hook Objects, Release Rituals, Listening Rooms, generative-era trust, and agent-readable permissions.

Founderupdated 2026-05-24

90-Day Audiovisual Identity Prove-or-Kill

active

Active operating plan: prove that Profile Worlds and Hook Objects create replay, participation, support, sharing, return, and release ritual.

Founderupdated 2026-05-18

Music Video Outsourcing

active

Living music video direction: artist-directed fragment capture, distributed cinematography, beat-aware sequencing, and evolving audiovisual worlds around hooks.

Founder + Productupdated 2026-05-26

Visual Pairing System

parked

Strategically important, but parked unless it strengthens Hook Object authorship, emotional clarity, sharing, or return traffic.

Product + Engupdated 2026-05-11

Long-term goals

Directional, not a backlog. Some of this will change, and some of it will not happen. The test is whether each bet deepens the emotional gravity of Profile Worlds, Hook Objects, Release Rituals, Listening Rooms, or the provenance/permission layer that keeps intentional music legible to future systems.

Hook Object format

2026

The hook scene becomes the native object: audio, lyrics, realtime visuals, room state, provenance, unlocks, fan traces, and share identity.

Audiovisual runtime

2026-2027

Shaders, lyric timing, generated/raster visuals, rendered artifacts, and playback state become a disciplined runtime for songs, not decoration layered over audio.

Release Ritual rooms

2026-2027

Release anticipation becomes a shared place: early listeners, artist prompts, collective reveals, supporter proof, provenance, and return rituals before drop day.

Participation graph

2026-2027

Fans earn durable identity through support, traces, interpretations, edits, shares, and room presence. The graph measures closeness, not empty reach.

Distribution bridges

2027

TikTok, Reels, Shorts, X, Spotify, and Apple Music remain escape/discovery surfaces. Casset preserves attribution and brings attention back to the canonical Profile World.

Atmosphere/world Studio

2027

Creators author Hook Objects without becoming technical directors: templates, visual worlds, textures, lyric timing, participation prompts, reveals, and launch rituals.

Intelligence as taste support

ongoing

AI helps pick hooks, tighten worlds, suggest visuals, summarize fan traces, and coach release timing. It stays explainable, provenance-aware, and never becomes the primary pitch.

Agent-readable permissions

2026-2027

Artists express release intent once. Agents query permissions for remix, stems, sync, AI training, AI generation, derivative registration, and licensing routes.

Release lineage

2027

Remixes, alternate cuts, samples, visual reinterpretations, and AI-assisted derivatives keep a route back to the source release and its permission posture.

How this list works

Shipped chapters summarise what exists — detail lives in the per-topic docs (commerce, hook system, audio pipeline, theming, etc.).
Product philosophy is the source of truth for what Casset is designing toward. If a feature does not strengthen Profile Worlds, Hook Objects, Release Rituals, Listening Rooms, or canonical release context, it stays parked.
Active items are the operating focus. Right now that means proving replay, participation, support, sharing, return, and creator commitment around audiovisual identity.
Parked items may be strategically strong, but they should not consume focus until the core world format is loved.
Long-term goals are directional, not a backlog. Anything concrete graduates into "Active" once a design doc exists and the timing is right.
Markdown source lives at docs/roadmap/ in the repo so the plan sits next to the code it affects.

Have an idea or a bug that would be a good roadmap candidate? Open a PR adding a docs/roadmap/<slug>.md stub and a matching TSX page under app/docs/(public)/roadmap/<slug>/page.tsx.

← Docs home

Shipped

High-level product chapters that are in production today. Each one maps to a thick slice of functionality — not a single feature. Implementation detail lives in the linked docs.

Profile World core

shippedv1

The foundation. Creators get a Profile World, a casset object, and tracks with artist-chosen hooks. Public listeners hear the hook; collectors or members unlock deeper access.

Profile-first identity, retro cassette aesthetic, mobile-first.
Artist-chosen preview window per track; gated both client-side and at the audio proxy.
Streaming platform links (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube) surfaced inline.

Paid collection + Stripe Connect

shippedv2

Apple Pay via the Payment Request API; Stripe Checkout for everyone else.
Stripe Connect direct charges — platform takes a fee, artist gets paid instantly.
Referral tracking: collectors share unique links; attribution is one row per collector per casset.

Listening Room / Side B

shippedv3

Every casset has a room/community layer visible to collectors and members. Real-time activity, comments, tipping, and share attribution are the early presence layer around the music.

SSE + Redis acceleration for live collects / tips / shares — authoritative in Postgres.
Free membership (join without collecting) unlocks Side B without a purchase.
Tip modal routes PaymentIntents to the artist's Stripe Connect account.

Release quests / drops

shippedv3+

Artists can fund time-boxed participation campaigns. Strategically, drops stay peripheral unless they strengthen a Hook Object, Listening Room, or Release Ritual.

Hybrid payouts: tiered prizes for the top N + a performance pool distributed by per-view score.
Metrics ingestion across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, with manual fallback and fraud scoring.
Drop Plans — recurring monthly drops on autopilot; promoters subscribe and get notified.
Intelligence Layer post-campaign coaching in the artist's voice, backed by OpenAI with a rule-based fallback.

Hook Object sharing

shippedongoing

1080×1920 client-side export via Canvas + WebCodecs + Meyda + mp4-muxer. No server ffmpeg.
Fan clip submissions with upload + TikTok-link ingestion and per-track moderation state.
Artist-funded bounties with Stripe Connect transfers to winning fans, including non-artist user payouts.

Desktop experience + retro skins

shippedv4 → v5

A real desktop surface. Persistent sidebar, client-side casset switching, timed emoji reactions on the scrubber, collector downloads, artist bonus media, unified settings. Plus swappable retro skins.

Seamless in-app casset switching without full-page navigation.
Old School mode — iTunes Music Store 2003 skin with a CRT fuzz transition and a click-wheel mini player.
Player skins: iPod Classic, Game Boy Color, Cassette Tape — persisted locally, no backend state.

Identity, provenance & sharing

shippedv6 + oauth

How creators show up, how listeners find them, and how everything travels. Multi-provider auth, handle system, profile badges, credits, and share-output primitives.

Auth via email, Spotify OAuth (PKCE), Apple Sign-In, Google OAuth.
Handle claiming with a reserved-username allowlist + real-time availability checks.
Social link pills, streaming platform icons, AI/No-AI profile badges, share-link short URLs, OG cards regenerated on edit.
Credits ledger for PWA install rewards and admin grants; foundation for future paid unlocks.

Canonical release foundation

shippedv7

Release manifests, contributors, permissions, provenance, lineage, Base anchoring, and agent-readable routes now sit under the cinematic product as quiet trust infrastructure.

Release, ReleaseVersion, ReleaseManifest, ReleaseAnchor, Contributor, Split, PermissionPolicy, ProvenanceEvent, DerivativeLink, and AgentAccessPolicy models.
Agent APIs for manifest, DNA, provenance, lineage, permission checks, license/access, and derivative registration.
Internal Release DNA dossier surface for owners, with Base anchoring framed as proof infrastructure rather than product identity.

Long-term goals

Hook Object format

2026

The hook scene becomes the native object: audio, lyrics, realtime visuals, room state, provenance, unlocks, fan traces, and share identity.

Audiovisual runtime

2026-2027

Shaders, lyric timing, generated/raster visuals, rendered artifacts, and playback state become a disciplined runtime for songs, not decoration layered over audio.

Release Ritual rooms

2026-2027

Release anticipation becomes a shared place: early listeners, artist prompts, collective reveals, supporter proof, provenance, and return rituals before drop day.

Participation graph

2026-2027

Fans earn durable identity through support, traces, interpretations, edits, shares, and room presence. The graph measures closeness, not empty reach.

Distribution bridges

2027

TikTok, Reels, Shorts, X, Spotify, and Apple Music remain escape/discovery surfaces. Casset preserves attribution and brings attention back to the canonical Profile World.

Atmosphere/world Studio

2027

Creators author Hook Objects without becoming technical directors: templates, visual worlds, textures, lyric timing, participation prompts, reveals, and launch rituals.

Intelligence as taste support

ongoing

AI helps pick hooks, tighten worlds, suggest visuals, summarize fan traces, and coach release timing. It stays explainable, provenance-aware, and never becomes the primary pitch.

Agent-readable permissions

2026-2027

Artists express release intent once. Agents query permissions for remix, stems, sync, AI training, AI generation, derivative registration, and licensing routes.

Release lineage

2027

Remixes, alternate cuts, samples, visual reinterpretations, and AI-assisted derivatives keep a route back to the source release and its permission posture.

How this list works

Shipped chapters summarise what exists — detail lives in the per-topic docs (commerce, hook system, audio pipeline, theming, etc.).

Product philosophy is the source of truth for what Casset is designing toward. If a feature does not strengthen Profile Worlds, Hook Objects, Release Rituals, Listening Rooms, or canonical release context, it stays parked.

Active items are the operating focus. Right now that means proving replay, participation, support, sharing, return, and creator commitment around audiovisual identity.

Parked items may be strategically strong, but they should not consume focus until the core world format is loved.

Long-term goals are directional, not a backlog. Anything concrete graduates into "Active" once a design doc exists and the timing is right.

Markdown source lives at docs/roadmap/ in the repo so the plan sits next to the code it affects.

Have an idea or a bug that would be a good roadmap candidate? Open a PR adding a docs/roadmap/<slug>.md stub and a matching TSX page under app/docs/(public)/roadmap/<slug>/page.tsx.