Why We Built LoopCentr: A Rails Tool for DJs Without the Subscription Tax

How a DJ friend and a Rails habit turned into LoopCentr

Giuseppe and I have known each other for years. He’s a DJ and producer. I’m the friend he calls when software gets too complicated and in the way of his work. One night he sent me a note that boiled down to this:

“I just want to build a web application to create clean spinning-vinyl video for my tracks. Why is everything a subscription?”

He tried all the usual online tools. They were fine on the surface, but behind every export button there was a wall of monthly plans, trials, and upgrades. He didn’t want a membership. He didn’t want a “creative suite.” He wanted a simple tool that didn’t nag him for money every month.

And because he knows I live and breathe Ruby and Rails, he asked if I could help him build something better.

That’s how LoopCentr started.

A simple use case doesn’t need a lifelong contract

Most subscription products sell the idea of constant use. That works for a few categories. But music promotion isn’t one of them. Giuseppe might post a run of vinyl loops around a release, then go quiet for weeks while he works on new material.

Paying monthly for a tool used in bursts doesn’t make sense. It feels like renting a drill for a year to hang three pictures.

So we flipped the model. Instead of charging for time, we charge for output. If you make two videos, you pay for two videos. If you need fifty, you buy a pack at a fair bulk price. If you don’t need the tool for a while, nothing keeps ticking in the background.

No retention tricks. No “upgrade to keep your features.” No recurring bill for a tool you barely touch.

Credits match how artists actually work.

Rails was the obvious choice

When someone asks me for help, I reach for Rails. Not out of nostalgia—out of trust. Rails makes it easy to build a focused product without drowning in infrastructure work.

LoopCentr is a straightforward Rails app:

• Active Storage handles image and audio uploads.
• Background jobs process the video renders so the UI stays fast.
• Stimulus keeps the interface reactive without piles of JavaScript plumbing.
• Good old MVC gives the whole thing structure.

No micro-services. No container orchestra. No weekend spent debugging Kubernetes. Rails let me move fast and keep the code approachable so I could focus on the actual problem: giving artists a clean, predictable workflow.

And it felt good. Rails still delivers that sense of flow that made it special in the first place.

Built by watching one user

We didn’t start with a pitch deck or a target market. We started by solving Giuseppe’s pain.

He needed:

• Vertical 9:16 videos ready for Reels, TikTok, and Shorts
• A spinning vinyl animation that matched track length
• A simple waveform trimmer
• A preview he could trust
• An export that looked right without fiddling

The first version was rough. He used it anyway. Then he pointed out every place where it slowed him down. That feedback shaped the product more than any feature list could.

For example:

• The preview needed to feel real, not symbolic → we reworked the animation.
• Trimming needed to be obvious → we cleaned up the controls.
• He didn’t want to worry about render settings → we fixed the defaults.

We built LoopCentr in the same way Rails apps are meant to be built: start small, ship something, refine.

Credits over commitments

When the product felt solid, pricing became the next step. Subscriptions were off the table from the start. They didn’t match how Giuseppe used the tool, so they likely wouldn’t match how other artists used it either.

Credits solved that cleanly:

• Buy what you need.
• Use it when you want.
• Nothing expires.
• No ongoing bill.

It treats people like adults. It respects that creative work happens in seasons. And it keeps the business honest. We earn money when the tool proves its worth.

A tool, not a platform

LoopCentr doesn’t try to own your workflow. It doesn’t try to pull you into a content calendar, a feed, or a social dashboard. It exports MP4 files. You post them wherever you want.

If you stop using it, nothing breaks. Your videos live on your device. Your credit balance stays put. Your account doesn’t melt after 30 days of “inactivity.”

This is how software should behave: useful when called, quiet when not.

Staying small on purpose

There’s a lot of pressure today to grow every project into a “platform.” But some ideas shine when kept narrow and sharp. LoopCentr is one of them.

Rails supports that mindset. One codebase. One deployment. One place to reason about how the whole thing works. It keeps the focus on the craft of building a tool that solves a real problem for real people.

Giuseppe wanted a way to make clean vinyl videos without signing up for a subscription he didn’t need. I wanted to build something meaningful without turning it into an over-engineered monster.

LoopCentr sits right in the middle of those two wants. And that’s why it works.