Hitting the right notes

First, there was Pandora, a way to find new music through a computer algorithm. Then, there was Spotify, a way to find new music through real people sharing what they're listening to. And now, there's a new stage of musical social media: Handsdownmusic.net (HDM), a way to share not just songs, but playlists, pictures and videos of last night's show or tomorrow's biggest hit.

"Everybody goes to shows and they post all these videos and say they have such a good time, and I want people to share it — I want to see it, too," said HDM founder Matt Brown. "Everybody looks on YouTube and searches for it, but let's say, they just go to our site, and it's right there on the homepage, like this happened the night before, and these are the videos from it."

Brown, a junior marketing major at this university, started HDM with two friends from the University of Delaware. Within a week of its Oct. 20 launch, the website had 1,000 hits. It reached 10,000 hits last week.

So far, the most popular genres on the site are house, rap and hip-hop, Brown said, so he updates those pages with new content more often. He finds most of the new music by following blogs and, of course, incorporating submissions from users.

"I'd really like to see more people involved," Brown said. "I try to do surveys and see what people want because it's not about what I want; it's never about what I want. It's about your product and the way people view it."

The website was designed by William Thresher, 21, who founded a media and design firm called SharkShark in August. He offers services to clients for a cheaper price if they let him "take liberties with the design." Brown agreed to this deal, and both he and Thresher are happy with the results.

"The idea's been done before, but they're taking a different path," Thresher said. "They update it multiple times a day so there's a lot of content, it's up-to-date, and they have a lot of exciting stuff planned. They're thinking of the next step all the time."

Brown said HDM is starting to reach out to artists and venues to set up their own events, including a show with Philadelphia hip-hop group Ground Up planned for March. The team is also in the process of making an HDM app for iPhone and Android, which members think is key to both the interactive experience and the evolution of the site.

"We're so new that instead of necessarily improving what we already have, it's just going to keep expanding, keep finding new outlets to get kids looking at the site, whether it's updating the categories or looking for local musicians to get them a spotlight, to get any kind of student to look at it, maybe not just house or hip-hop fans," said HDM videographer Evan Thornton.

Junior government and politics major Evalyse Limon, a user of the site, thinks HDM is already better at branching out than some other music websites, such as fratmusic.com, but does hope to see more interviews with artists.

"Personally, I like listening to the playlists section of the site while getting ready to go out for the night," Limon said in an email. "You don't get that overplayed at parties vibe when listening, and the variety of the songs is nice, too. They've gone past the recent dubstep craze and incorporated genres like classic rock, oldies and reggae."

And that's what Brown and the rest of HDM are all about: finding the right melody for every situation.

"There's always a soundtrack to something," Brown said.

mcfischer@umdbk.com