Website Upbeat is being hailed as a ‘Reddit of music’, referring to the way it lets people vote songs up and down its chart just like stories are up and downvoted on technology site Reddit. Upbeat launched six weeks ago according to Mashable, and draws its music from SoundCloud. People can submit songs by entering their SoundCloud URL, with others then able to vote on them. “There’s this need for music discovery services that go beyond what the mainstream music industry is putting in front of you,” says founder Shaun Russell. “We hear the same dozen songs by artists with huge budgets.” Songs are sorted into genres – pop, electronic, urban, rock and metal – and although Upbeat is currently a website, iOS and Android apps are in the works. We’ve been here before: blogger Tyler Hayes launched his Next Big Thing site as “a Reddit/Hacker News for music” in March (Bulletin, 27-Mar-13) but it appears to have since turned into a music-videos blog called I Made You A Mix. Let’s see if Upbeat can live longer and prosper.
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