Upupup Characterized by TechCrunch
as “a Digg for Indie music,” my new favorite site of the week/month and beyond
is thesixtyone.  

Thesixtyone serves up
the latest Indie bands in a format that is as simple as it is dramatic, telling
visitors that “new artists make music and listeners decide what’s good.”

With
well-established sites like the Hype Machine
and Pandora indulging my online music
needs, why am I proclaiming my love for this self-described music adventure? Well
in addition to music, thesixtyone has several interesting elements in social
media and design to catch my attention. 
 

·        
Focus:
thesixtyone only offers Indie music. It goes deeper than it goes broad with
50,000 tracks uploaded by artists and music labels. This allows them to do one
thing very well. 

·        
User
Control: Site visitors can listen to all 50,000 tracks
and create playlists. This means users can listen to what they want and bands
can upload what they want…this ability to customize the user experience ensures
more repeat visits. 
 

·        
Addictive
Sharing: The site includes social gaming elements,
giving you reputation points that encourage you to listen to more songs, rate
them and then share them via Facebook and Twitter. More like foursquare than Pandora in this regard, the
site tracks your efforts. 

If songs you “heart” get more popular after the
fact, your reputation grows. You can also unlock badges but, much like
foursquare, you’re not exactly sure what activity unlocks each badge. This of
course encourages more activity on the site. Visitors even get reputation
points if they are listed as having referred someone to the site. So tell them
prblog tipped you off…my reputation depends on it. 
 

·        
Simple,
Beautiful Design: Site navigation is subtle, but not so simple
that you can’t figure it out. This makes it easy for site visitors to immerse
themselves in thesixtyone’s full-screen images and of course listen to the
music. This combination of simple design, with music and images helps connect
the listener to the artists vs. simply connecting the listener to thesixtyone. 
 

·        
Info Bits
for an ADD Audience: As each song plays, band schedules, back story
and smaller images flash on and off the screen to keep your attention.
 

The end result of thesixtyone is an engaging social
media listening experience that is…wait for it…music to my ears. Check it out.

*If you knew that the headline’s reference to “turn it up to eleven” is a quote from Spinal
Tap? You get reputation points from me.
** Cross-posted to my work blog, Social Study.



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