MP3.com Musicvine Review

I haven't been to mp3.com in about 2 years... happened to see an add for it on news.com and I was quite surprised with what they are doing these days.

The front page is what you'd expect, new releases, playlists, news and tutorials. But what really grabbed my eye was the musicvine.

It works like this. Say you're a John Digweed fan, you type in "John Digweed" and hit return. Then, you get a 3D planetary (with Saturn looking planets) model with John Digweed in the center, with links (lines) to other artists/groups with simular styles. Clicking around the screen (not on other "Planets") you can browse around and see who else might have a simular sound that you may like. Clicking on another artist's "planet" will center the targeting, (a circle within a circle, within a circle allowing you to zoom in and zoom out) on them and then give you similar groups of that artist.

Then I can take the new-similar-to-John Digweed artist, in this case Ferry Corsten, jump back to the main page of MP3.com, type in Ferry Corsten in the search box near the top of the page and I get a list of results clicking on "Very Best of Ferry Corsten" album link I get all sorts of information on the Ferry, ratings, track listing, credits etc. I also have the option of listening to a track and also to download it. Clicking on the download link brings me to a page that gives me results from Napster, LiveDownloads, eMusic, AudioLunchbox, iTunes & BuyMusic! It tells me if the song is available from each, if it's "Coming Soon" or if it's "Not Found" I also have the option to stream it from three different locations, or to buy the CD from mySimon.

Over all, it's simple, informative, and quite an improvement from the mp3.com I remember from the past. It appears that it's still in a beta testing version, and a lot of the tracks that I had looked up where not found in places that I knew actually had them to download. But it gives the novice to pro digital audiophiles something new to play with and the newbie someplace to start. A central repository of sorts for the massive digital audio revolution that's been happening while we sleep. If you miss me on the forums, it's because I'm swinging through the musicvine! Can't wait until it goes golden-master.