Yet Another Slick Site Pushes 'Music Powered by People' Idea
Because Napster, MySpace, iTunes, Pandora, Rhapsody and countless others are perhaps missing something that these people aren't, we announce the arrival of Haystack. You can register as a listener or an artist and toss around really savvy words that we're sure indie purists use all the time, like "tastemakers" and "music stuff."
Haystack even gets all Shakespearean on our asses and makes up its own buzz words: a "stack" is vividly defined on the homepage so there won't be any confusion about why anyone would cognitively pair "haystack" and "music."
When we finally grasped the concept we thought, "Guess every roll in the hay deserves a soundtrack." But we're not sure that's what they were shooting for. - Contributed by Angela Natividad
Comments
i can never tell when you guys actually LIKE something or not... i like it. i mean, yeah, the challenge for the haystack peeps will be to differentiate in a constantly expanding world of social network sites, but for me, it's a breath of fresh air compared to the bottomless pit of myspace - as much as i'm tied to it... i think most music fans will feel the same way.
http://gregverdino.typepad.com/greg_verdinos_blog/2006/10/last_week_i_wro.html
"Sure, over time certain citizen tastemakers will rise to the top of the heap - consistent trustworthy recommendations will allow users to identify others who exhibit "taste we can trust." But until that time, most of us will need guideposts.
In this area, it seems like Haystack has it closest-to-right. Their planned inclusion of professional tastemakers (magazine reviewers, industry insiders, the artists themselves) gives listeners someplace to start. Want to know what's hot in electronica? See what Moby is listening to. Really into The Living End? Check out the other Aussie artists that The Living End recommend. In the long run you might opt to follow the lead of a select group of true citizen tastemakers, people just like you that love the music you love. But access to recommendations from professional tastemakers and other music industry insiders provides an easy way to get value out of the service before you're ready"
I see the idea being a good one for many, but for me the idea of a few 'select' anything feels elitist in a way, much like the latest generation of new media cheerleaders telling us 'you need to listen to us because we're self-proclaimed experts who know what's best for you’.
It would be cool to see what the artists themselves are into and making up my own mind based on that. That way, I don't have to deal with the reviewer/middleman.
Not saying I don't want recommends, but when you go to Amazon, their automated system picks choices based on previous purchases, not something new and different. In that case, I'm open to new stuff. It's just that I don't want someone else's opinions to dictate what I listen to 100% of the time.
Ultimately, a true citizen experience will just be me and the musician’s songs without anything between. Just saying.
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