thesixtyone.com

I often stumble upon unreleased tracks, rare mixes or bands I’ve yet to fall in love with via Hype Machine – but it’s not often that I get to listen to unsigned artists.

A few months ago, one of my favourite people in the world sent me a link to thesixtyone.com. Being technically minded, he commented on how slick the site was from a usability perspective, and that the full screen imagery made it beautiful to view on a widescreen monitor.

I fell for it immediately, but for other reasons, and it now sits comfortably within my bookmarks, waiting patiently for my mind to get bored of thumping electro and switch to something less familiar.

The concept is simple. New artists upload tracks for people to listen to straight from the homepage and decide if they like them. If you do, a  mini biography tells you a little bit more about what you’re listening to, as well asshow you more songs by the same artist – and upcoming shows. What’s more, all of this is all accessible without even logging in.

Once you do (a simple form completed in a few minutes) you can then build playlists, ‘like’ tracks – though you’re only given 10 likes per day, so choose wisely – search the tracks by mood, most popular or even those chosen just for you based on preference. There’s a multitude of features, and completing the ‘quests’ (found on the top right of the screen) directs you around the site, introducing new functionality as you go. You can share, comment and even download the tracks,

It’s a veritable playground of new music. Go forth and enjoy.