FAQ

Quick answers to the things people ask about Tunebout. If yours isn't here, the contact page has an email.

Do I need an account?

No. There are no accounts on Tunebout — there's no login form, no sign-up, no password to forget. Open the site, build a quiz, share the link. That's the whole flow.

Where are my quizzes stored?

Inside the share URL itself. Your quiz — questions, answers, song IDs, settings — is encoded into the link. For quizzes that are too large to fit in a URL, the encoded data is uploaded to bytebin, a free public paste service, and the link points at a short key. Your browser also keeps a local copy of recent quizzes so they show up on the home page.

Why does the URL get so long?

Because the quiz data lives in the URL. Every question, every answer, every snippet timing — it's all encoded into the link, so anyone who opens the link gets the whole quiz, no server lookup required. We compress and base64-encode it, but a 20-question quiz is still going to produce a chunky URL. Quizzes that get too long are automatically uploaded to a paste service so the link stays short.

Can I edit a quiz I made?

Yes — as long as you're using the same browser on the same device you originally created it on. When you build a quiz, your browser stores a private creator token. The edit page checks for that token before letting you change anything. Clearing your browser data (cookies, localStorage) will wipe the token and you'll lose edit access to your old quizzes.

Can other people edit my quiz?

No. Without your creator token, the edit screen is read-only. Sharing a quiz link only lets the recipient play the quiz — they can't modify it.

Why YouTube and Spotify, not MP3 uploads?

Two reasons: legality and cost. Hosting MP3s would mean paying for storage and bandwidth, and more importantly it would mean redistributing copyrighted music, which is a much harder legal position. Embedding YouTube and Spotify is free, scales infinitely, and the rights are handled by services that have already done that work. The trade-off is that if a song gets removed from those platforms, the quiz question for that song stops working.

Can I import a YouTube playlist?

Yes. Paste a YouTube playlist URL into the bulk-import field and Tunebout fetches the track list via the public Piped API. Long playlists are paginated automatically. From there you can review the tracks, trim the list, and customize snippets before publishing.

How does the scoring work?

Each question is worth up to 3 points. If you answer correctly within the original short snippet, you get the full 3. If you extend the snippet to hear more of the song, the point value drops the longer you listen. Wrong answers and skips score zero. The idea is to reward people who recognize a song from just a few seconds without punishing people who need a little more time.

What happens if a song gets removed from YouTube?

That question becomes unplayable — the embedded player will fail to load the missing video. The rest of the quiz still works. If you're the creator, you can edit the quiz and swap in a different source for that song. If you're a player, just skip the broken question and finish the rest.

Is there an app?

No. Tunebout is just a website. It works in any modern mobile or desktop browser, and you can pin it to your home screen if you want an app-like icon. There's nothing to install and nothing to update.

Can I make money from quizzes?

Tunebout is a free tool — there's no monetization layer for quiz creators, no tipping, no premium quizzes. The site itself runs display ads to keep the lights on, but quiz creators don't earn anything for plays. Build quizzes because they're fun.

How do I delete a quiz?

Tunebout doesn't run a delete button because there's nothing centralized to delete. The model is share-and-forget: you control who has the link, and a quiz is only "live" to people you've sent it to. To stop sharing, stop sharing the link. Quizzes uploaded to bytebin expire on bytebin's own schedule. To remove a quiz from your own home page, clear your browser's site data for Tunebout.