The idea sounds interesting when you write about it, but when I load the page my first impression is that it looks like every other music streaming site on the planet- it looks like a more crowded version of HypeMachine. If I hadn't read about it here I would have closed the link without poking around at all.

After clicking the first link I'm impressed- the song starts playing immediately, and I love the little pseudo-lightbox pop-under.

Very slick.

The bumping rollover is very well-done, the ability to download is perfect, but the flow to registration is even better.

I clicked a random song, wanted to download it, and was interested in registering- it then pushes me to register. Right on. The growl-style notifications are awesome.

I'm writing this as I explore the site, and, I have to say- the first impression sucked, but this is really well-done. I'm impressed. It's ajaxy and interactive without being slow and non-responsive. Also, while logged in, the little trivia notification in the bottom right corner is a great touch.

The player in the top right is cool, but poking around, the layout feels too complex, and I wish there was a better dashboard. Just a page where it has a large Now Playing, Cover Art, Next/Previous/Volume Controls, and then three columns with recommendations, the popular list, and some kind of popular/new submission hybrid list. It would also be great if there were bump/add/download links in the top right hand player.

I think the site is absolutely phenomenal, I love the bumping, the music that's playing (it's actually good!), and the interface touches. However, I feel that the focus on the game aspect drags down the site- I just want to load it up and have a stream of kickass music playing that I can bump when it's good (and it usually is!).

Basically, I want this site to replace iTunes for me, because it's better than iTunes... one it has a more passive listening focused page that I can flip to when a great song comes up and bump/favorite/download when one plays. I think this is going to be a real break-through service if you focus on the 'new music that doesn't suck' angle over the 'music scavenger hunt' angle. I know that the two go hand in hand, with the good music being drawn out by the people digging for music by playing the game, but I think that there will be a lot more people who just want to listen to the result of the game (good music) without taking part in the game.

Personally, I'm down to bump good songs and add them to favorites list, but I don't have time to go find good music by looking up new bands. It might be worth focusing the initial blank slate experience on passive listening.

When I go to the frontpage, it's not immediately clear how to just listen to the the list of songs straight through. I hit play on an individual song, but there's no feedback if the entire playlist will play. I want to fire and forget until a great song I want to remember comes on- when a great song played, that's when I hit download, and that's when it pushed me to register, which I did. But then it put me to a page focused on music scavenging instead of listening, which is why I registered.

Your pitch is for the game aspect, and the site's copy is about the game aspect... but, as a listener, what impresses me is the music quality. It'd be great to have more differentiation between listeners and scavengers.

Bit of a braindump post, but I love the site and will keep on using it- first impression is shitty but the second I clicked on a song link I was blown away.

Good stuff, and good luck!