A new social networking site for music called WorldSings wants to "unite artists and music fans from around the world." If that concept sounds a lot like what MySpace is doing with their music offering, that's because it is - but there's a twist. Like MySpace, WorldSings lets artists create profiles where they can upload music, videos, and concert lists as well as feature live events. Meanwhile, music fans can friend the artists and each other as they engage in music discovery on the network. ]]>
Even though MySpace is already well-established in the social networking music scene, this newcomer has a decent enough plan to attract an audience: offer cold, hard cash. You see, WorldSings isn't just another social network - it's the site for a new annual contest in search of the "World's Best Song," an online competition offering $1,000,000 in prizes.
To kick off the launch of WorldSings, the company is launching their annual contest which is open to any musician or band performing original music. After creating a profile and uploading content, artists can participate in the contest while also growing their fan base through traditional social networking. On WorldSings, artists are expected to interact directly with fans via wall posts, chat, and direct messages.
Artists also get to know who exactly their fans are as WorldSings plans on sharing key demographic information regarding fans' age, gender, location, etc.
About the Competition
The World's Best Song competition, an effort to expand people's musical knowledge, is somewhat like a cross between an American Idol-type competition (or any of its overseas counterparts) and the Eurovision Song Contest, a popular European contest and one of the longest-running TV shows in the world. On WorldSings, fans will vote for their favorite songs throughout the year and on March 19th, 2010, the top 20 vote getters will fly to Las Vegas, Nevada to compete in a live competition at Planet Hollywood. The winner of the competition will receive $500,000 and the title of World's Best Song. The other $500,000 will be divvied up among the other 19 finalists. Music fans have an opportunity to win, too. They can compete for prizes during the year including the grand prize - an opportunity to fly to Vegas to see the top artists perform.
Without the competition aspect to WorldSings, the social network would just be too much like MySpace Music to be of interest to anyone but the most serious of music aficionados. However, the contest could actually be a big draw for this new music destination site. Don't believe us? Just look at the millions of viewers tuning into American Idol and Eurovision's Song Contest.
WorldSings will officially launch during SXSW on Friday, but it opens to the public today.
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