My Startup: app turns music discovery into an online game - feedback?

www.thesixtyone.com

what? thesixtyone, a web game that makes listening to new music a fun, adventurous experience. It's like a music scout role-playing game.

how? Listeners are allocated virtual currency that they can spend promoting songs and are rewarded when their picks perform well. Top songs reach the homepage and are sorted into a radio playlist where listeners are a click away from discovering new sounds.

status We're 3 months into our public beta, and, aside from balancing several "gameplay" mechanics, we've since introduced a couple of new features, including a more sophisticated genre system, show listings, artist photo reels, play history, and embeddable listener badges that syndicate your personal radio station across the web.

about thesixtyone is myself and Sam Hsiung. I used to be a game developer (EA/Atari/Activision), but declined an offer to work on Xbox Live (my dream job when I was in school) and dropped out of college so I could make thesixtyone happen. Sam is a YC alum, having previously created the venerable YouOS (YC Fall '05, I believe). We made thesixtyone because music on the web to date has felt either super-gimmicky or like a ridiculous, restriction-driven police state. Music is entertainment, and entertainment is all about fun...and "fun" just happens to be what makes us tick.

For those curious, thesixtyone was written in Python (Django), although our very first prototype was thrown together with Rails. We're named after Highway 61, a US interstate that starts in a little town in Minnesota and ends at the heart of American music culture, New Orleans. A significant portion of music culture emanates from this particular place: it's where Bob Dylan came of age, B.B. King first toured, and Elvis was born.

One more thing: we're interested in recruiting a talented developer as teammate #3; we'll be at Startup School, so feel free to say hello!

Ha, thanks for the complement. It's really hard not to fret about the name when you're so in love with what you're doing and what it could do for others. The original name was "Project Alix," "Alix" being the first name of the girl who owned the notebook that I scribbled the early wireframes of thesixtyone on while I was supposed to be studying for an exam.

most music options ignore the fact that listening to new music is usually tedious and uninviting.

it feels like work, and people simply move on, especially when you consider that most already know what they want.

so the big problem for emerging artists is how you get those first plays from people who aren't your friends or family. our approach may seem lighthearted and overly-friendly for such a serious problem, but that's what we're finding works best when introducing new music to new audiences.

interesting fact: avg. listener spends more than 15 hours/week listening to new music on thesixtyone.

I love it. It's the first music site I've been to that has grabbed me. I actually signed up for it, which is rare.

My only feedback is that the colors could be more subdued. Or more glaring. Actually, the colors of the headers seem a bit out of place.

But that's pretty detailed. :)

Hi JMiao, The site is loading too slow for me to try it. I will check back later in an hour or so. I tried both firefox and flock to check thesixtyone.com.