Philadelphia-based PhilaFunk, another social network and for music, is staging a Battle of the Bands competition to start on October 22nd (echoes of YouTube Underground there). Andrew Kortina, the 23 year-old founder, is also claiming to be unafraid of MySpace, despite their plans to turn MySpace Music into a music store - PhilaFunk makes its money from music sales. But with such a crowded market and MySpace stepping up its game, things aren't looking too bright for the social network.
First off, PhilaFunk is let down by a lackluster design. On the upside, the profile pages aren't totally locked down - you can embed media from YouTube, Flickr, Google Video, Slide.com and iFilm, with support for Metacafe coming soon. However, there's no customization of the layout or color scheme (ala MySpace layouts). You can also send messages, list events like upcoming concerts, leave comments and give "shout outs" to other users. There's tagging, too, and the ability to add other users to your friends list. For those who like the technical stuff, the site is coded in Ruby on Rails.
It wouldn't be a music store without the ability to listen to music, but that's where PhilaFunk is a letdown - rather than letting you listen to a full-length, lower quality version of the track, PhilaFunk lets you play a short preview before deciding whether to buy. It's pretty much impossible to tell whether a track is any good by listening to the first verse, and it's the complete opposite of what the site's competitors are doing. If you did decide to buy, however, tracks cost $0.99 and the artist keeps $0.80 - a pretty good deal. Users pay for tracks using PhilaFunk credits, bought via Paypal - if you buy lots of credits at once, you get a discount.
Of course, that high percentage is only worthwhile if PhilaFunk can attract lots of users, and that seems unlikely now they're up against the MySpace juggernaut. And PhilaFunk's competitors not only provide full tracks: they also syndicate that music to through social networks (see Finetune's MySpace music player and Sonific's Music Player for MySpace). Other competitors include ProjectOpus and MusicHawk, which is more of a music directory than a social network.
Musicians want distribution, and big sites like MySpace are the most effective way to get it. PhilaFunk will probably be a great starter-business for the 23 year-old founder, but I doubt it'll take off in a big way.
Hey PhilaFunk Users!
Mashable's totally audiolicious PhilaFunk account is HERE - feel free to add Mashable to your friends if you sign up, or you're already a member.
