loopclub

The shared drum machine to jam with strangers or with Claude

Music

Artificial Intelligence

GitHub

Web3

Hey hunters 👋 loopclub is one drum machine. Not one per user — one, globally. A 16-step, 9-track grid that everybody on the internet is playing at the same time, right now, as you read this. You light up a cell, it's yours for the next two minutes, and it's yours in a way that's a little unusual: every cell is a real write to a blockchain, not a UI state that syncs later. That sounds like a gimmick until you notice what it buys you — when a pattern sounds good and somebody hits record, the loop gets frozen as an edition, and everyone who owned a cell in that snapshot gets paid every time a copy is pressed. The drummer who put the kick in gets paid for the kick. Automatically, forever, without anyone having to agree on anything. That was the whole idea: what does collaborative music look like if attribution is just... a property of the instrument? Three things worth trying: 1. Just listen. Open it and you'll hear whatever the grid currently is. Tap any cell to audition its sound. No wallet, no signup, no email. Auditioning is free and always will be. 2. Jam with Claude. There's an MCP server — npx -y loopclub-mcp, or add it as a connector on claude.ai — that lets you say "dark techno, four-on-the-floor kick, off-beat hats, a low C2 drone" and get back a playable loopclub link with the loop pre-loaded. Claude does the musical thinking; the server just bit-packs it into a URL. Auditioning what Claude wrote you is also free. This is my favourite part of the whole thing and I'd love for someone to break it. 3. Actually play. This is the honest bit: to place a cell you need a funded wallet on MegaETH, because the cell is a transaction. Cells cost fractions of a cent; recording a loop costs 1 USDm. It's cheap but it isn't frictionless, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. If you want to hear it and not deal with any of that, do #1 and #2. Why a blockchain, and why this one — the obvious question, so let me not dodge it. The product is realtime co-writing where authorship is settled as you play. That's write-heavy: every toggle is a transaction. On a normal chain, a hi-hat costs you a confirmation dialog, a few seconds, and a dime, and a drum machine where the hi-hat costs a dime is not a drum machine. MegaETH's blocks and sub-cent gas are the only reason the thing feels like an instrument instead of a form. It's genuinely the one design where the chain isn't decoration — take it away and there's no shared grid and no automatic payouts, just another jam app. It's open source (MIT, link above), the audio is all synthesised — a TR-808 emulation and a 303-ish acid line, no samples — and I built it because I wanted to hear what strangers would make on it. What I'd love from you: go make some noise and tell me if the grid sounds alive or dead when you land on it. That's the thing I most need outside eyes on. Ask me anything about the design, the economics, or the chain — I'll be here all day.