www.launch.com
Launch www.launch.com
Launch.com is the MTV and VH-1 of the Internet. Featuring all
the information anyone could ever want to know about music artists
from a wide variety of genres, as well as artists from both major
and independent record labels, this music Web site boasts
informative editorial content, in addition to containing a large
archive of music videos. The opening page offers site-goers many
different music-related paths, including the main options to
“listen,” “watch,” “read” and
“interact.” Currently under the “listen”
category is the chance to hear a Badly Drawn Boy song and win
corresponding CDs or posters. Contests seem popular on this site,
as many are offered with prizes ranging from a trip to Dublin where
one will be pampered at U2-owned hotels and restaurants to a
giveaway of a signed Deftones guitar. There are prizes of the month
as well, this month’s being two free tickets to an
alternative rock concert in the winner’s hometown. A special
section of the site, entitled “Then & Now ““ A Video
History,” is a another monthly activity on the site that will
showcase the past and present videos of various bands and
musicians; the Red Hot Chili Peppers was the first band to have
videos featured on launch.com. Another recent addition to the site
is “New Album Previews.” This area offers visitors the
chance to listen to the songs of their favorite artists up to two
weeks before the album actually goes on sale. New releases by PJ
Harvey and U2 are currently available on the site, in addition to
many more. Launch.com is an updated site, offering a current news
section that features various articles on the often dramatic lives
of music artists. For instance, one can read up on how Christina
Aguilera and her dancers were struck by a viral infection and
forced to cancel performances. Almost anything music-related is
available on launch.com. From special theme Web stations with
categories such as Nirvana (a station that features more
punk-flavored music) to photo giveaways of Limp Bizkit’s
visit to the Virgin Megastore in Times Square, New York, the site
has more to offer than time to look at. The site’s archive of
more than 6,200 videos seems to be the most unique and defining
aspect that distinguishes launch.com from other music Web
locations, and makes the site worth looking at ““ if you have
the right Internet connection and programs. Barbara McGuire
Rating: 8
Upstage.com www.upstage.com
For up-and-coming artists who are seeking to gain an audience,
the explosion of the World Wide Web has been a dream come
true. Upstage.com epitomizes this dream of reaching an
audience in theory, if not in content. Upstage.com is a site that,
among a variety of other services, gives artists the opportunity to
have their work available on the Web for free. The site is
separated into seven different forms of artists: musicians,
writers, filmmakers, models, performers, digital artists and visual
artists. Anyone can log on to the site through a relatively
painless process that requires supplying the obligatory personal
info. Next, the site gives you 25 megabytes of space to create a
site that can be used for whatever you want; you can create up to
seven of these sites. All work is protected, and remains the
property of the respective artist. The site is under new
management, which may explain some of its glitches, including links
that don’t lead anywhere. The “Finding audiences for
unknown artists” aspect of the site is a great idea but the
rest of the site is such an eclectic jumble of things, that the
user may want to give up altogether. Besides news, reviews, and
purchasing opportunities in all genres of entertainment, the site
also provides weather forecasts and horoscopes. The horoscopes seem
completely normal, and it takes a while to realize that
they’re meant to satirize the whole idea of horoscopes.
Hopefully they’re a joke, since each one gives a different
date as “today” and they give suggestions like getting
a mousetrap for your mailbox. These mock-horoscopes, instead of
adding some comic relief, simply make the site seem less credible
than it already does. The icons on the site are impossible to
decipher without reading their headings, which makes the visual
aspect of the site a bit perturbing. It’s difficult to figure
out just what and where everything is. The site has a
“featured artist of the week” for each section, an
effective way to get the word out about unknown artists.
Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to search for any specifics;
it asks for “code names” for artists although it never
mentions where these can be obtained. There are many interesting
things to discover on the Web site, as in most Web sites, but most
of them would be much easier to find somewhere else. Although
the creators have good intentions, they just don’t pull it
off yet. There are only two reasons to visit this site. If
you’re a budding artist, it couldn’t hurt to post some
of your work since it is free; or if you’re bored and just
want to browse through some new names in the arts, it could be
worth your while. But for everyone else, upstage.com is a confusing
mixture of unrelated things that aren’t worth the confusion
they cause. Leila Mobayen Rating: 4