The Internet is now full of YouTube clones and copies, many
more than I care to mention or that we need.
FanCovers offers the same
simple service but with a difference, which could be a boon for amateur
musicians and fans alike.
“It is a community of amateur artists who want to share their
work with
the world. We provide a free service that lets users upload their very
own videos, performances, and creations.”
FanCovers.com
recently launched
its beta service which still needs some upgrades and modifications, but
it could potentially provide amateur musicians with a way to reach an
audience.
The primary mission of the site is to allow amateurs to
upload
their own “cover versions” of popular songs. One such example is the
cover version of Stevie
Wonder’s “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing” by whyDNA.
Although the current selection of song covers is limited, I
was
able to get a good feel for the service. It provides many of the same
options and features as YouTube, such as the ability to embed a video
into another website or blog. Also, it keeps track of how many views
each video has received.
One feature that I found interesting is the way videos are
tagged.
Tags are not used in the normal web 2.0 sense, which involves adding
various keywords relating to the video.
Instruments Played Tags Feature
Instead, the feature is called
“Instruments played” and it allows the artist/user to input what
instruments they used while performing on the video. Other users can
then search by these instruments to find, for example, all the videos
in which the artist used an acoustic guitar.
One thing that irked me throughout my entire experience was
skipping during video playback. On YouTube there is the occasional skip
or hiccup in playback due to buffering, but it is usually only because
the video is still loading.
On FanCovers, my connection was able to
load entire videos quickly, but I still had to put up with
interruptions every 10 seconds or so. I am not sure if this is just me,
or if this is the case for others too, but it should definitely be
fixed.
It would also be nice to see search-friendly URLs for each
user’s
profile, similar to the method that is used by YouTube. It is much
easier to remember http://www.youtube.com/user/MoTv1
than it is to remember http://www.fancovers.com/profile.php?ukey=O7R57557NV.
If you find a specific artist whose music you like, you have
the
ability to subscribe to that user and receive updates every time they
upload a new “cover” video.
Most Popular Features
On the homepage there is a section where
the most popular users are displayed, which is determined by the number
of subscribers each user has attained. Also, the left side of the page
is reserved for featured users and videos.
As more talent finds out about this service, I am sure that
it will
gather more videos, as it currently only has about 3 pages worth of
content. It would be amazing if record executives and the music
industry discovered FanCovers.
It could give some individuals (who
truly are talented) the big break they are looking for, although
YouTube would probably provide a bigger audience.
Overall, I found FanCovers
to be a pleasing site that is deserving of feedback
from its users to provide exactly what the people want. With a little
bit of time and patience, I could see FanCovers become the budding
amateur musicians community that it wants to be.
Michael Garrett is a contributing author discussing the social networking world, his work can be found on Profy.com
