How Our Beta Testers Are Shaping Larka

I’m building Larka in the open, with a small group of musicians who use it every day and tell me what’s working and what isn’t. It’s the best decision I’ve made for the product. Here’s how their feedback actually turns into features.

I read every message

Every reply, every note, every screenshot goes straight to me. There’s no support queue or feedback black hole. When a tester hits a rough edge, I see it, and more often than not it becomes the next thing I ship. The loop is short on purpose.

“I get a radio-ready track”

Jer, a songwriter in the US, put it better than I could:

“I’m not interested in AI that makes music from a prompt. But Larka lets me turn my lyrics, chords and melodies into full productions. A couple of minutes later I have a radio-ready track.”

That’s the whole idea. Larka isn’t a type-a-prompt-get-a-song machine. It’s for people who already have the music in them and want a way to finish it. Jer’s feedback shaped how the saved-song tools work, from extending a track to pulling out stems.

“Make the Afrobeat actually sound like Afrobeat”

One of our testers produces Afrobeat and dancehall, and he was honest: the genres were there, but they came out generic. Afrobeat has a specific feel. Dancehall has its own sub-styles. A single label wasn’t enough.

He was right, and it sent me straight into the code. We’re expanding the genre engine so each style carries its real signature, the tempo, the drums, the bass, the instruments, instead of just a name. Afrobeat, Amapiano, Afro-house, Dancehall and Reggaeton are getting that treatment, and if a sub-style still misses, he’ll tell me and we’ll keep tuning. That kind of specific, expert feedback is worth more than any amount of guessing.

Reliability came from you too

Testers told us the tense moment was generating a song and worrying it would vanish if they left the app. So we rebuilt that flow: songs keep generating in the background, you get a notification when they’re ready, and nothing is lost if your connection drops. That peace of mind exists because people told us it was missing.

Want to shape what comes next?

The beta is open. If you make music, or want to, you can join, start creating for free, and tell me what Larka should do next. Install Larka here and come build it with us.