Drebin posted about this a few months ago, but I wanted to personally share my hobby/experiment with you all since it finally graduated from its alpha phase today. It's called thesixtyone and aims to make listening to new music a fun, adventurous experience. Some of my friends have amusingly called it a music scout RPG.

Having worked in the game industry since I was in highschool, I've simply become bored of making more games where the goal is to shoot more aliens or save more princesses. I started wondering if games could be harnessed to entertain people AND solve real-world problems.

Everyone knows the music business is in the shitter -- the RIAA's trying to mold the web into a police state, and finding new music (that isn't being paid for by the labels supporting the RIAA) still feels like a job. I don't know anyone who successfully browses Myspace and finds new stuff they love unless they're specifically looking for it.

So I realized that my calling was to see if I could develop an accessible game that would help people find new music and reward reputation to those that play the "scouting game." This new sense of meaning was perfectly timed as I found myself droning through an expensive college, so I dropped out determined to make this thing happen. I left home with my laptop and 3 changes of clothes to live on a living room floor, roam libraries for wifi, and survive off a diet from Walgreens (um, yeah). It was a scary/sobering experience, but I'm kinda glad I went through it because, when you hit rock bottom, you really start to get your priorities straight (and priorities are different for everyone).

So what do you guys like about it and what can be improved?

Feedback is extremely critical as the site is constantly evolving, so more feedback means a better experience. Hopefully this site can help musicians find their audiences on their own and give people a cool way to find new music that's driven by their peers, not some marketing budget.

Sorry about the advertising; while I hate ads as much as anyone, streaming music is really expensive, so the ads basically help me from going bankrupt.

edit: here's my page --> www.thesixtyone.com/james

my collection --> www.thesixtyone.com/james/collection/