Sampled Planet

Why I built it

I travel a lot, and I keep hearing songs I already know sung in another language. Each time I tried to connect the two versions in my head. No app made it easy to put songs from different nations side by side, so I made one. Sampled Planet celebrates how music moves across regions.

At a glance: I designed and built it in 2026. It holds over 300 songs from 40 countries, and it grows every week. I call one melody and all its versions a beat. The ask on every beat is simple: listen, then tap the heart on your favourite version.

The globe at the center

The globe sits in the middle of the screen because the name promises a planet. The versions of a beat sit on a ring around it, with the playing one on top. When you turn the ring, the globe turns to that version’s country.

When the versions come from neighbouring countries, the globe zooms in on their part of the world and shows borders and names. A whole planet would turn two neighbours into one dot, and the distance between them is the story. Changing version moves the camera a little and draws an arc across the map. Changing beat flies it to the next place, so you see where a melody travelled before you press play.

You turn the ring by dragging, scrolling, clicking a card or using the arrow keys. A beat with only two versions swings between them and leaves a slot on the empty side, with a line that says: know this melody? Add it.

Turn the ring and the globe follows. A new beat flies to a new place.

Sampled Planet on desktop: three versions of Poso Mou Leipei on a ring above a zoomed-in globe of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Turkey, with a lineup of flags below — Under the ring, a lineup shows every version with its flag, so you can jump straight to one.

From v1 to v3

v1 proved the idea. It had one big player and a row of versions under it. It worked, so I kept going.

v2 came from studying Spotify, YouTube and other music apps. I borrowed what people already know: a clear player bar, a now playing panel and a catalogue that scans like a chart. v3 takes the same screen to a deeper visual level, with the ring and the globe, a colour for each version, and glow and depth.

Sampled Planet version 1: a large video player with a row of small version cards underneath — v1: one player and a row of versions.

Sampled Planet version 2: three version cards side by side with a player bar at the bottom — v2: cards side by side and a player bar, learned from other music apps.

Sampled Planet version 3: three versions on a ring above a globe, each with its own colour — v3: the ring and the globe, a colour for each version.

A design system of its own

I kept the surfaces dark and quiet so the flags and each version’s colour do the talking. Titles use Syne, a wide and heavy display face, and text uses Plus Jakarta Sans, which stays easy to read when it is small. I wanted it to look like no other music app.

Each version of a beat gets its own colour. The same colour marks its dot on the globe, its place in the lineup and its bar in the results, so you can follow one version across the screen.

Every colour is a named token, and the build refuses a stray colour, so the look stays the same as the app grows. Text passes contrast checks, and nothing is smaller than 12 pixels.

Mobile that feels familiar

People already know how a music app works, so the phone version uses those habits. You swipe to the next beat, and it picks a random one you have not heard yet. A small counter shows how many you have heard, and each day one beat is marked as the Beat of the day. Region chips at the top narrow the catalogue to the Balkans, Europe, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East, or Asia and Oceania.

A mini player sits above the tab bar, like Spotify’s, with the vote heart one tap away. The small globe in the header opens a map sheet that lists every version by country.

Music keeps playing while you move around the app, and it shows up on the lock screen. When the version in focus changes, the phone gives a light tap where the device can vibrate.

Sampled Planet on a phone: a beat with its mini player above the tab bar, and the map sheet listing every version by country — Swipe between beats, the mini player below, the map one tap away.

Motion with a job

Motion shows what changed. Versions slide round the ring, so you can see where the next one comes from. When you change beat on desktop, the old covers blur and fade, and the new ones sharpen in one after another. I tried a card flip first and replaced it with this, which is calmer. The song keeps playing through the change, because the video is never moved or reloaded.

After your first vote in a beat, the results count up. Anyone who wants less motion can have it, from the device setting or a switch in the More menu. With it on, changes happen at once and the phone stays still.

Simple accessibility

Everything works from the keyboard. Space plays and pauses. The left and right arrows turn the ring, the up and down arrows change the beat, and 1 to 9 pick a version. L votes and the slash key searches. The question mark opens the full list, so nobody has to guess.

Touch targets are at least 44 pixels tall. Colour is never the only signal, because every version also shows its flag, its country code and its artist.

The Sampled Planet keyboard shortcuts list: Space, arrows, 1 to 9, L, slash and question mark, each with what it does — The shortcuts list, one key away.

A community that curates

Anyone can suggest a song and vote for a favourite version. There is no account. I listen to every suggestion and approve each song by hand before it goes live, because every match has to be real.

Votes sit behind bot protection and a daily limit for each voter, so the results stay honest. You see the counts after you vote. A weekly check finds videos that stopped playing. I also run the social accounts, @sampledplanet.

The Suggest a song pair form on a phone: song name, artist and an optional country for each of two songs — Suggesting a pair on a phone.

Designed, built and run by me

I designed Sampled Planet and built the front end and the back end with the help of AI tools. I set up the hosting, protected voting from bots, gave every beat its own page that people can share and search engines can read, and did the QA, the edits and the bug fixes. I still look after it every week.

Somewhere right now, a song you love is being sung in a language you do not speak. Sampled Planet is where you can hear it, and see how far one melody can travel.