[doubleconfess]

I had the same impression from going to the blog to the site, the line "Earbits is going to change the music industry and that the results we’re producing for bands are unparalleled" made me actually reconsider whether maybe the meeting was a set-up. It's just such an over the top line, and so patently untrue that it made me reconsider the character (or maybe the blinders) of the person writing the blog/founding this company.

And I will say that the design and interactions on thesixtyone.com were much much much nicer (which is especially notable for the two sites being so similar). But I did miss the ability to set up a preferred genre.

[gala8y]

Never been to earbits site before. I just grokked its for listening to the music. Listening and then paying attention to who made the music, liking and sharing.

Its designed that way, so I get it that I need to press the button for genre and actually listen for something longer than 30 seconds (thus media player feel). Its what people really into discovering music probably are doing - spending their time feeding those sounds into their brains (and selecting newly discovered artist AND buying their music).

As per changing the music industry ("I just want to thank you for everything you do for independent artists."), it must be that artist do get discovered via the service (See prev. paragraph, I guess [my comment, not the article]). This 'function' is just not readily visible on the site. If this works that way, I would add I really like this 'magical', invisible twist in the service.

[greendestiny]

I gave it some thought, and I do think the genre radio and the curated artist profiles were interesting. Though it did't help that the genre's are great fits for the tracks I listened to, that does tend to happen with amateur music.

I guess the kind thing you want to see as an artist is a whole bunch of listens for an artist you think you can do better than. Or money.

[gala8y]

"Though it did't help that the genre's are great fits for the tracks I listened to, that does tend to happen with amateur music."

You mean are not? :) It's interesting how many preconceptions we have - I mean, selecting 'ambient' I were prepared for getting fuzzy, 'not-exactly-what-i-call-ambient' stuff. Where in different kind of service (say, internet radio) I really want to get almost exactly what I mean by 'ambient'. Just part of a deal using such a service. Amazing how all this adds to perception of the service and its usability (and success or failure).

(If I ever write a book that will be about 'contexts'.) :)

[greendestiny]

Oops, certainly did. I think you're right, but my expectations were a bit a higher with the curated nature of the site.

[earbitscom]

The site is about discovery and we find that people are more excited to stretch just beyond the genre they chose than they are to get only the songs that narrowly fit the exact description. Most peoples' complaints about Pandora are that it's too narrow and plays the same music too much. We will often put a song that has ambient (or funk, R&B) elements into the channel, even if it's not straight ambient, and the rating of the song in that channel is still strong.

[greendestiny]

I can't argue with that. If you're tracking it and it works then I've learnt something that challenges my preconceptions.