Music Box
The Music Box plays music in your home on voice command. It holds the shard's library of player compositions: free songs, songs you have bought, and your own. Composers publish their songs to it and are paid when players buy them.
General Usage
Buy a music box from any Bard NPC, lock it down in your home, and double-click it. It plays your whole playlist from start to finish, then stops. Double-click it again to stop it sooner.
Give your music box a name: single-click it and choose the rename option. You then speak to it by name, as you would to a smart speaker (its designer named his "Alexa"):
Alexa, play Douce Dame Jolie Alexa, next Alexa, previous Alexa, repeat Alexa, shuffle Alexa, loop
You never need a song's whole name: a few words of it are enough, and the music box works out which song you mean, using Angel Island's Intelligent Dialogue System. Alexa, help lists every command.
To see what music is available, say list:
Alexa, list
Yellow titles are yours to play: free songs, songs you have bought, and songs you composed. Red titles are premium songs, which cost gold.
To hear a premium song before buying it, ask the music box to play it:
Alexa, play strut
It plays a 10-second sample. To buy the song:
Alexa, buy strut
The music box walks you through the purchase:
When you agree, the price is taken from your bank (or your shared bank accounts) and paid into the composer's bank, here Pastor Wydstrin's. In this screenshot the player has named the music box Bach, and asked for the song by part of its name.
The song is now in your library and your playlist, ready to play:
- Your library is every song you have access to.
- Your playlist is the songs from your library that the music box plays. You might take the Christmas songs out of it in July. Remove takes a song out; add puts it back.
List of Commands
Say the music box's name, then the command. Several commands have a second word that does the same thing.
| Say | What it does |
|---|---|
| play song | Plays a song from your library, or a 10-second sample of one you don't own. |
| stop (or cancel) | Stops playing. |
| pause | Pauses. |
| resume (or continue) | Resumes after a pause. |
| what (or who) | Says the song and its composer. |
| next, previous | The next or previous song in your playlist. |
| repeat | Plays the last song again. |
| loop | Plays your playlist over and over. |
| shuffle | Shuffles your playlist. |
| list | Lists the songs. list with words lists the songs whose titles have all of them (list christmas); list by with a name lists that composer's songs. |
| new | Lists recently approved songs. |
| buy song | Buys a premium song. |
| remove song (or ignore) | Takes a song out of your playlist. |
| add song | Puts a removed song back. add alone is the same as submit. |
| refresh | Adds new free songs to your library. This also happens on its own. |
| purchases | The songs you have bought. |
| sales | Your sales as a composer (see Getting Paid). |
| status | Your songs: waiting for review, approved, or why not; then your sales (see After Review). status pending, status approved or status rejected lists only those songs. |
| submit (or add) | Publishes a song (see Instructions for Composers). |
| remaster | Asks to replace one of your approved songs with a new version. |
| rename | Renames the music box. |
| help | Lists the commands. |
Instructions for Composers
The Music Box is how composers share and sell their work across the shard.
- Write your song in a composition book and transcribe it into Sheet Music. Set its name and price at the top of the composition with # Song: and # Price: (a price of 0 makes it free). See Settings for every setting.
- Single-click your music box and choose Add, or say submit (or just add). Target your sheet music.
Your song is now in the shard-wide library, not just your own music box, and goes into a review queue. Staff review songs to keep out offensive content, not to judge their quality (songs can have lyrics). While it waits, you can still play it on your own music box: it is in your playlist, and the box says it is pending approval. Once approved, it appears for every player: free songs in their libraries, premium songs as red titles they can sample and buy.
Each approved song earns you Music Karma, and so does every sale and every play.
After Review
You're told what staff decided the next time you use a music box, any music box (walk up to it, double-click it, open its menu or speak to it): Your song Bombshell was approved!, or that it wasn't approved and why. Say status to see all your songs at once:
Alexa, status
Each song is listed as waiting for review, approved (with the date), or not approved with the reason staff gave. Your sales follow. A long list scrolls by quickly: status rejected shows only the songs that weren't approved, with their reasons (status pending and status approved work the same way).
To publish a new version of an approved song, say remaster.
The library is permanent and not tied to your account: once a song is in, it stays available to other players. If the character who composed a song is deleted, the song becomes free.
Napster Tracks
A song transcribed with # Napster: True is passed hand to hand instead of sold. Anyone who has a copy of its sheet music can add it to their own music box, which gives them the song (the sheet is used up). Other players hear only a sample, and are told to get a copy from the composer.
Getting Paid
When a player buys your song, the price goes straight into your bank. Say sales to see your totals:
Alexa, sales
If your bank box can't take the gold, the sale is recorded as a credit to you instead, shown in your sales. Credits are paid the next time you use a music box, any music box: walk up to it, double-click it, open its menu or speak to it. The gold goes into your bank, and you're told how much. If your bank box is still full, you're told the gold is waiting: make room, then visit a music box again.
Credits are paid only to the character who earned them, on the shard where they were earned. If that character is deleted, or the music library moves to another shard, the credit is not paid.
Say purchases to see the songs you have bought:
Alexa, purchases
Leaderboard
The Music Box records each composer's sales and the gold they have earned. The leaderboard at your local bank shows them.
Staff Reference
Staff use these commands to run the library. Players can't use them.
| Say | What it does | Access |
|---|---|---|
| review | Plays the next song waiting for review, then asks: Approve, Deny or Delete. Deny asks for a reason (TooLong, TooShort, Inappropriate, Duplicate or Other); Other asks for a one-line note to the composer (up to 100 characters). The composer is told at their next music box visit. | Owner |
| approve song | Approves a song: it becomes available to every player. approve * approves every song waiting for review, after you confirm (type Approve). | Owner |
| deny song | Rejects a song. deny * rejects every song waiting for review, after you confirm (type Deny). | Owner |
| delete song | Removes a song from the library. delete * removes every song, on Test Center only, after you confirm (type Delete). | Owner |
| find song | Shows a song's serial number, owner, and name. | Owner |
| dupe song | Puts a copy of a song's sheet music in your backpack. | Seer |
| flushall | Removes every song, everywhere. | Owner, Test Center only |
History
The Music Box was designed and built by Adam Ant in 2022, inspired by his Amazon Echo: hence "Alexa". See History and Credits.