Tag: music

The Sixty One

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I’ve recently been spending quite a lot of time at The Sixty One, a site that presents an interesting way of the community interacting with music and filtering out the good stuff. I’ve written briefly about The Sixty One before, talking about how websites like it harness something in the human nature that is very receptive to encouragement and measures of progress and achievement. The Sixty One does this by using a system of levels and reputation. Users ‘heart’ songs to show they enjoy them, and then if the song does well and receives lots of hearts subsequent to one hearting it, you receive ‘reputation’. You can also complete quests, which consist of tasks designed to familiarise yourself with the sites workings. Once a certain amount of reputation is reached you go up a level, and achieving certain levels unlocks features.

Users have an incentive to find good songs, and the gems are brought to the community’s attention. The Sixty One has effectively harnessed peoples’ self interest for the greater good – through hearting tracks people are helping to filter the infinate amount of crud. What I think is fascinating about The Sixty One is that they have created an abstract and almost meaningless measure of acheivement, (‘reputation’) but one feels compelled to move up the ranks and come back to the site time and time again. I find myself proud that I have once again gone up a level, but what does it really mean?

I’ve discovered a great number of amazing bands, and the fact that these are all brought together into my ‘personal radio’ that anyone can listen to is really fantastic as well. It enables me to easily share songs through facebook as well with just a few clicks. All things considered, I think The Sixty One is a great music site, with huge potential. I think the most challenging thing about the changing face of the music industry is that there are all these great indie artists on the web, but there aren’t really effective tools for the discovery of new music. The Sixty One sorts the gold from the dirt and allows good bands to rise to the top, which otherwise might remain unheard.

You can see my profile on The Sixty One here.

Levels and experience

I was struck recently when listening to music over at The Sixty One how if you add levels and experience (reputation in this case) to anything it instantly makes it infinitely more addictive. I think there is something about the of gaining and moving up levels, a sign that you are doing well, that at some deep level reinforces the action and compels us to do it more. I think that anything that incorporates levels of achievement has an amazing power to manipulate the actions of the people that interact with it, even if that ‘level’ means absolutely nothing.

Muxtape!

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I discovered Muxtape a while ago, and what set it apart for me was simple uncluttered design and the quality of the music site relaunched with. So many fantastic bands! I’ve developed a few favourites: Vulture Realty, Adron, DM Smith and of Montreal. After having some problems with the RIAA when it first launched they’re back and they’ve moved to a different model.  The new(ish) model is: only bands who want (the privilege of having) their music on the site put it up now. So that means no more copyright infringement claims! They just recently announced that they’re ready to open up Muxtape up a bit and are letting the original bands the site launched with invite other bands, and it seems to be growing pretty fast. Every time I refresh the bands page a new band pops up.

Although at this point in time the site is still under construction, I am EXCITED by the product they are trying to create. A place where you can stream music free, create legal mixes, and then buy it if you so desire sounds like a fantastic mix! And the best thing is it won’t end up looking like the confused mess that is MySpace music! I’m awaiting with -somewhat- bated breath as I see how they organise the inevitable huge flood of bands. But you should definately check it out!