HitClick Launches This Week with an Innovative New "Band Finder"

Added: (Sat Jul 16 2005)

Pressbox (Press Release) - HitClick officially launches with independent MP3 track reviews, featured artist coverage, indie news bites, and a new band finder tool designed to match eager new fans to unknown bands and artists worldwide.

HitClick.Net officially opened its doors to the general listening public today, signaling the beginning of what its owners believe will be a brand new way to find new independent music on the Internet. The HitClick Independent Music Network is one of the first of its kind, not only offering independent MP3 reviews, featured unknown artist coverage, an independent music community and news, but also unveiling its new "band finder"; a special tool designed to help everyday lovers of independent music quickly find new and unknown bands and artists worldwide.

"The difference is you can actually search from scratch, from nothing," says HitClick owner and content editor Avallon Julian DeBrill. "There are tons of places to search for all kinds of stuff, but the difference is they all assume you know what you're looking for to begin with. When you're looking for a new band, or a new artist, you're thinking in abstract terms -- you're looking for something that feels like this, sounds like that, sung by a him or her, mixed with that, and so on. What we created is something that works just like that. You can actually get as specific as you want not even knowing what you want in the first place. And that's what I think it is we all want."

According to DeBrill, the finder works a lot differently than what people are probably used to. "Bands sign up, add their information and a list of keywords that describe their sound, their location, their 'vibe', influences, or anything else they can think up. We try to make it easy for them. When a fan uses the Finder to search for a new band, the tool matches each of the keywords in their search to all of the bands in the Finder and gives them the top bands and artist for their search. You click on the link and go to the artist's website. A lot of bands have been using this to increase plays at their artist pages, too.

"With all the targeted fan traffic being funneled through the finder, the response has been really great for bands too. It's really hard to get good traffic to your band's website -- but nearly every band has one and dreams of creating sort of an 'on line fan base'; sell some CDs, build up a touring profile, drum up interest separately from playing live, and 'get heard' over the Internet. Well, what's happening is fans are actually getting there and actively taking part in the band's website once they get there. The fans coming through the finder are nothing like link trade visitors or even search engine hits. So it's really great I think for bands too to get all this great fan traffic and be able to sort of 'take control' of their online fan base."

"The idea is that a fan can sort of string together all sorts of terms with virtually no limit to how specific they can get," says Courtney O., one of HitClick's staff music reviewers, "you can find yourself in a mood for a 'Romantic moody tribal electronic female driven post rock solo artist from queens new york that sounds like Fru Fru and nine inch nails' and use the tool to pin it down. The funny thing is, with all the new bands we've been getting in the Finder, you'll probably find it."

A simple search at HitClick using the finder confirms Courtney's theory -- nearly 213 bands match these terms, including New York's Ailanthus, described as "Dark industrial infused rock with femme fetale vocals". "Bands and artists with more matches come up first. Less specific 'single term' matches show up near the end of the list, just in case you feel like paging through them all."

In addition to the new band finder, HitClick also offers daily MP3 singles reviews in every genre, a weekly featured independent band or artist, an active community forum, categorized music links, and other regularly updated content. "Most of us are musicians who've tried to build an online fan base. We've all had artist pages up at places like MP3.Com and Soundclick or had our own web pages, and one of the biggest problems you first run into is that you page just sits there. It's kind of a big deal to bands -- not to mention all those music fans out there slowly being convinced that there was nothing really good out there. We're trying to create a situation where it's finally possible, and feasible, for a band or musician to work online, sell CDs, and sort of create a buzz in the virtual world the same way you do offline. We're also trying to make it easy for fans to find new stuff. It's a really simple formula, we're trying to target fans to bands, bring even more music to the people, and provide a service that's really been missing online for quite awhile [with the band finder]."

Visit HitClick at http://www.hitclick.net

About HitClick:
HitClick updates daily with fresh new independent MP3 track reviews, and indie music news. Featured artist spotlights are provided weekly. HitClick is owned by Granite Creek Virtual Estates and Management, a Virtual Estate firm in Tucson, Arizona. The HitClick offices are located in Tucson, Arizona.

About Granite Creek Virtual Estates and Management:
Granite Creek is a Virtual Estates firm located in Tucson, Arizona that specializes in developing new concepts for a web market. Granite Creek VEM currently spearheads the movement to popularize and regulate the website sales market, through an online course designed to teach others how to buy and sell Internet property. Granite Creek also manages virtual property for other web companies.