The next generation social network by us, for us.

I've put a lot of thought into this idea, and i really feel i might be onto something. Many of you may know about MP3.com. For those that don't, MP3.com is a website dedicated to promoting music, much like MySpace Music. Independant and signed artists are given profiles and are assigned a certain capacity of space on the server where they can upload their music and share it. There are also forums and other means of promoting music on the site, and while i agree with the whole concept, i feel it might be too mainstream for the "little guy". Not only are these communities very large, but independant artists are competing with big names in the industry for page views, listens and downloads.

My proposal to you, the independant artists, whether you only make the music as a hobby, or whether you are really trying to break into the market, is that we can come together and form a smaller, more focussed community, designed by us, for us. The significance of this would be that we won't have to contend with the big names. Rather, we would create a social network allowing us to help build each other. Artists can upload their music to a server for others to hear, and maybe even collaborate on a global scale. John Doe somewhere in the USA can upload a basic song or the samples of one, and someone else in europe can then download those files and mix them. The final product will be a collaboration between two people on two different continents.

For the DJ's, another idea i had was to sort of set up a system almost like the big names in the Trance industry. DJ Tiesto and the boys from Above and Beyond have their own record labels, and when they do their mixes, they use tracks from their own labels. Not only is this convenient, but they avoid any problems regarding copyrights or acquiring the rights to mix the music, as well as boosting the popularity of their smaller, lesser known artists.

I'm more than ready to start this off as a small project. My first step would be to find a domain where i can set up a free social network. Anyone that feels this is a good idea and feels they can contribute can become a member. From then on i will try to find the best places to host files and share them. The idea is to try and keep everything free. If the network does eventually grow to the point where i cannot manage the administrative tasks alone, i will let the community know and trusted, capable users will be granted administrative privelages to help me keep everything running.

I'm open to ideas and comments. I believe there could be a future in this. Anyone who is willing to help or contribute in the form of ideas or information, or even talent, please email me on my gmail address or send me a message on facebook.

I'm going to make sure this network only includes independant artists. If we gain enough popularity, maybe we could even start producing compilations and selling them. The beauty in this is that every penny will go into our pockets. No agents, no network execs taking a certain percentage of our sales.

Who's with me?