Hear, Hear! Three Diggs for Music

Known for its ease of use, diverse selection of news/items of interest to millions of people, its attractive interface and features, and most of all its communal, Web 2.0-ness, Digg and its success in gathering together one of the largest social networks [with a purpose] over a short few years in this post-bubble, new boom era we’re in, is hedged on its base: Diggers.

They feed the fire, they aggregate the headlines faster than New York Times gets the story (of course, at times they get the story from the NYT), and occasionally come together to form one cohesive superhero, one that gets the word out to “the people”, be it with a notification about a scam, a rootkit, the slip of a politician’s tongue. The achievements are just about limitless.

But there’s one thing Digg doesn’t do, at least not in any direct way. They don’t categorize music. People can Digg podcasts, and technically, there are probably quite a few in Digg’s lists that cover the sonic sphere, but you won’t be able to add your vote to – or bury – a band (unless they’ve done something controversial) or a tune, and that can take away from the aggregator’s appeal. Fortunately, it only remains a problem for people that don’t know music-centric sites like Digg – which specialize in bringing together new and interesting music, by both the artist(s) and the fan – do exist. In fact, Webware featured three such sites recently. Profy peeked. Now we’re giving you a look inside.

bandBuzz

The first site I’m going to delve into is my favorite of the three. It’s called bandBuzz. I prefer it for its simple yet informative interface and the great array of options it offers the user. Like similar features on Digg, you can vote for or against a song, and you can add a track to your ‘Buzz’. It’s kind of like adding a story on Digg as your #1, but this just racks items up in your ‘My Buzz’ portfolio to browse through if you wish to do so at another time (or at that very moment). You can sort through results which catalog submissions to bandBuzz by time (Today, This Week, This Month, This Year, All Time) and by popularity or random preference (Featured, Shuffle, Published, Popular, New). Sort by genre too. There are over 60 to choose from. Like in iTunes or any similar service, you get to browse through the menus your way. That is a big plus, particularly if you’re always keen on finding new music.

You’ll typically find that bands promote their own work on bandBuzz, which really should be the way sites like itself work by default. You wouldn’t want to be discovered without knowing you’re discovered, would you? Well, if you’re into odd kinds of surprises, I suppose that’d be kosher. Hey, even if that’s your thing, bandBuzz will probably work in your favor.

iJigg

iJigg, a similar site, offers fewer options than bandBuzz, but if you were very much into Digg 1.0, you’ll probably love it. I would guess that iJigg doesn’t receive the number of submissions bandBuzz receives every day, but no matter. If you’re a casual listener or want to discover diverse lists of music as rated by iJigg’s users, without having to wade though 60+ genres, you’ll probably settle on iJigg as your favorite anyway. You aren’t given as many options to choose from, and you can’t vote down any submissions, so some might find it lacking in some areas, but you do have the option to embed a track in your own website or blog, and I must say, that doesn’t seem like a make-or-break feature, but, like embedded Digg buttons on pages around the web, there’s a good chance that this feature will catch on with a sizable portion of iJigg’s membership. The simple insertion of a line of code will bring a track up on your blog or webpage. That’s very cool.

Chartu

Lastly, we have Chartu. At first, it made me wince. The green just wasn’t working for me. Furthermore, you can browse the charts (Full Chart, Last Week’s Chart, Recently Added, The Top Tracks, Your Chartu), and there are spaces for playlists and “Minicharts” to the right and left (Minicharts break things down to the genre level), but you’ll need to have an account just to listen to a track. That put Chartu at the bottom of my list immediately. Sure, it’s just a simple sign in, but rarely will one want to register for something he/she can’t even sample appropriately.

The best benefit to using Chartu is the volume of music available. And the ability to create playlists. And share those playlists. And— Hmm, maybe I should reconsider my top choice…

Screenshots:

bandBuzz

iJigg

CHARTU