Secret Sound Echo is the home of Secret Sound Fridays, a Chicago open-mic night with a secret prompt revealed mid-show. One build runs the night itself, the community of writers around it, and the records that come out of the room.
An open mic happens in one room, on one night. The league wanted more than that: a way to run the night itself, a place for its writers between shows, and a home for the records made from it.
Off-the-shelf tools cover pieces of that: a ticket page, a group chat, a link to a streaming service. None of them carry the room.
We built one platform with three doors. The live night: a door kiosk, a host console, and a display for the venue TV. The Writers Block, where members post, follow, reply, and answer prompts. And a record store for the league’s releases. Members carry one profile across all of it.
It is deliberately not a general social network. No direct messages, and no public like or follow counts. Attention goes to the writing and the room, not the numbers.
A host console runs the show in real time: the queue, set timers, attendance, the prompt, and moderation for the in-room chat. A door kiosk checks people in, signs up walk-ins, and scans reservation codes, and a display puts the stage, reactions, and tip handles on the venue TV.
The night’s secret prompt unlocks on a timer: the league’s mark opens like a mechanism on every phone and on the venue TV before the prompt is revealed. Responses stay private until the host picks The Three.
Profiles, follows, written and recorded pieces, replies, and a feed of the people you follow. The Writers Block runs open prompts and timed writing sessions, a weekly In Focus honor is scored on unique readers, and notifications bring members back.
The league’s first record, So…I Speak, has its own room: click the cover and a 3D Chicago skyline rises, every building a track, its windows pulsing to the audio above a rippling lake. Pay-what-you-want digital, single tracks, and a numbered vinyl run, with checkout through Stripe.
secretsoundecho.com runs the live nights, holds the writers’ community and its archive, and sells the league’s records, all from one codebase. The first live night ran on it in September 2026.
Under the hood: 53 pages, 70 API routes, realtime channels for the room, and a full admin console for shows, people, music, sponsors, and money. It is the range of what we build when a project needs a product, not a page.