Highway Sixty One, Turned Music Site

Its nice to hear new terms in the tech space every once and a while.  ‘Ramen Profitable’ is the latest from Y Combinator mastermind Paul Graham in describing music sharing and streaming service TheSixtyOne.

TheSixtyOne builds custom playlists and radio stations based on songs that are ‘favorited’ or ‘hearted’ the most in each song’s specific genre.  So, with zero profile information and music knowledge, you can select to listen to ‘reggae’ , ‘electronic’ , or ‘hip hop’ , plus choose radio stations based on mood such as ‘ relax ‘ , ‘crazy’ , or ‘covers’ .

I haven’t tried the ‘crazy’ radio station yet, but I bet its Loco.

For the time being, I think these radio stations are considerably better than the radio stations I listen to on Last.Fm or on Pandora.  Almost all the songs are new to me, with a few obscure indie songs that I haven’t listened to in a while sprinkled into the mix.

What the site hasn’t proven yet is whether or not it continue to offer new tracks a month from now, after many days of listening to their radio station.  How will the reggae station be different a month from now than it is now?

If 50% of the songs are different, then I’ll be coming back.  In the next month or so, I doubt this will be the case, as they tend to still play the overall favorites, but as more bands continue to upload their music, and as more music moderators come in and ‘heart up’ recently added songs, I think these radio stations will be some of the best on the web.

One other feature I love about the site is the continuous playback.  I poke all around the site with a continuous stream of music going.  I can even use browser buttons such as ‘back’ and ‘forward’ the music doesn’t stop.  This does not happen with Last.FM, Pandora, or HypeM.

Let’s just hope that the TheSixtyOne continues to stay away from bands signed by EMI, who continue to sue developers who help the spread music to the masses.