Every once in a while, you come across a Web site so engaging it starts to take over your life.TheSixtyOne.com is such a site.This site will change the way people discover new music. While my friends were getting wasted at the beach, I was spending hours hunched over my computer discovering hundreds of new bands I’d never heard of before and testing my music-listening skills.In the past, the music industry has been dominated by suits. They pick what they think we will like, and then bombard us with propaganda and marketing until we actually start to like the music.But what if listeners decided which artists and tracks were “good?”
The Sixty One lets users do just that. It makes music democratic.The Sixty One lets artists create profiles and upload their music. Users then listen to the tracks and award “bumps” to the songs they like — very similar to the popular site Digg.com.Digg features user-submitted content other users can “digg.” When users log on, the most “dugg” content shows up first, allowing users to access information from across the Web, based on how many users like it, not on marketing or name recognition.
Both Digg and The Sixty One are all about giving the little guy a chance.
Digg allows users to access obscure blogs and sites they would otherwise never encounter. The Sixty One lets users listen to independent artists from across the globe.Unlike Digg, each user is given a limited number of “bump points” to spend, so users can’t go “bump-happy” and bump every song they hear, ensuring users only bump their favorite songs.
The tracks that receive the most “bumps” are compiled into “hotlists” which are displayed when users log on. The Sixty One remembers what you like and makes recommendations based on your previous bumps, much like Last.fm or Pandora.com.The Sixty One takes the best elements from sites like Digg, Last.fm, Pandora.com and Myspace.com and combines them into one coherent and easy-to-use site.Where The Sixty One breaks new ground is by awarding points when someone bumps a track you’ve bumped. So, if you are the first to bump a song that is later bumped by other users, you earn points.It’s a competition.The site basically rewards you for liking music before other people like it, which is great for me because I spend a good portion of my life listening to music most people have never heard.The best part of the site is the music player.Unlike MySpace music or similar sites, the music keeps playing no matter what you do on the site. You can build playlists in real time, “bump” songs and download MP3s.And the music never stops.
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Contact Jack LeBlanc at [email protected]