I'd like to introduce you to Qloud

The social networking blog Mashable (http://www.mashable.com) always seem to have posts that catch my interest. I just came across a post of theirs from yesterday (http://mashable.com/2006/10/10/qloud-launches-music-search-meets-social-networking/) about a new social networking music site named Qloud.


Not only is Qloud (http://www.qloud.com) a social networking site, but it is also a plugin for iTunes. Qloud allows music fans to search for artists, songs, genres, etc where they can either link to the page or buy the song from an individual online music store. It also relays information about individual songs such as number of plays, ratings, and tags. Users are also able to visit profile pages of friends where they will be able to see what music they have been listening to.

To me it seems that the social features of Qloud (the ratings, tags, plays, friend pages) are helping to promote individual songs or artists. These features allow users to see what bands/artists/songs are popular among their friends as well as in general. If they respect the opinions of other music fans as well as their friends through Qloud, it may lead to album or song purchases. This nonthreatening, conversational promotion style has the potential to be very effective.

What do you think? Would joining a site like Qloud open up your perspective to music and cause you to possibly purchase more music from different types of artists? Leave your opinion in a comment!