Bandcheck

Making Music Discovery Safer

Live Platform: bandcheck.marcodoes.tech
GitHub Repository: m-gora/bandcheck

Music should be accessible to everyone, but not all content is suitable for all listeners. Bandcheck addresses a gap in music platforms: content warnings for potentially triggering or sensitive material.

Our Mission

Bandcheck’s mission is to make discovering music safer by building a shared knowledge base of content warnings contributed by the community. Unlike traditional review platforms that focus on subjective ratings, Bandcheck provides evidence-based, factual information about content—empowering listeners to make informed decisions.

The platform is non-profit and open source because we believe access to information about potentially triggering content should be freely available to everyone.

How It Works

Community-Driven Reviews - Users contribute content warnings for songs, albums, and artists, specifying categories like explicit language, violence, substance references, or other sensitive topics.

Evidence-Based Approach - Reviews focus on objective content descriptions rather than subjective quality judgments. “This song contains explicit language and references to substance abuse” rather than “This song is good/bad.”

Informed Decisions - Listeners can search for music and view aggregated content warnings before deciding whether it’s appropriate for their context—whether that’s personal triggers, playing music around children, or workplace environments.

Technical Stack

Built with modern cloud-native technologies for scalability and maintainability:

Frontend

  • React with TypeScript for type-safe, maintainable UI development
  • Responsive design for seamless mobile and desktop experiences

Backend & Infrastructure

  • Azure Functions for serverless, scalable API endpoints
  • Auth0 for secure authentication and user management
  • Terraform for infrastructure as code, ensuring reproducible deployments
  • GitHub Actions for automated build and deployment pipelines

Local Development

  • Azurite + Docker Compose to run Azure cloud dependencies locally
  • Seamless local-to-cloud parity for efficient development workflow

Architecture

  • Documented using arc42 architecture framework
  • Function as a Service (FaaS) architecture enabling independent scaling per function
  • Cloud-native design for high availability and cost efficiency

Open Source Philosophy

The entire codebase is open source, inviting:

  • Community contributions to expand coverage and improve the platform
  • Transparency in how content warnings are collected and displayed
  • Reusability - others can deploy their own instances or adapt the system for different media types

Why This Matters

Bandcheck represents a user-centered approach to content moderation that prioritizes safety without gatekeeping. By separating content warnings from quality judgments, it respects both artistic expression and individual boundaries.

From a technical perspective, it demonstrates:

  • Function as a Service (FaaS) architecture with Azure Functions at scale
  • CI/CD automation with GitHub Actions for continuous deployment
  • Local development parity using Azurite and Docker Compose to mirror cloud environments
  • Community platform design balancing openness with safety
  • Infrastructure as code for reproducible cloud deployments
  • Authentication & authorization patterns with Auth0

The same principles apply to any platform requiring community-contributed metadata—movie databases, podcast directories, or game content ratings.

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