Bebo Bands launches to steal more users away from MySpace

User-driven site will focus on playlist popularite, not just track popularity

28 July 2006 17:45 GMT / By Amber Maitland

Social networking site Bebo is upping the ante against MySpace with its latest venture, Bebo Bands.

It has promised users unlimited uploads of their music, photos, and videos in order to gain more popularity for free music sharing of unsigned bands.

"The BIG ONE is finally here", writes one of the official Bebo Bands bloggers, Michael Birch.

"So it may not be 100% ready, but we thought we would throw it out there, get some feedback, and evolve it."

"Expect to see many enhancement over the next few weeks."

The site claims to have signed up 10,000 registered users on the Bands section ahead of the official launch.

Bebo Bands is introducing some new concepts to make music sharing and dicussion better and more inviting.

For example, it's introducing user playlists that can be shared; the playlists are ranked for popularity, so that the creators then become Bebo DJs.

Bebo Bands is the latest in a slew of websites to try to capitalise on the popularity of MySpace and steal some users away with new features.

MTV announced a new social networking site earlier this week called MTV Flux, which is to be based around a Japanese-style Avatar design.

Instead of concentrating on music, MTV Flux pushes video content and encourages Fluxers to ultimately control their very own TV channel.

www.bebo.com