PhilaFunk

One of the designers of Philly-based PhilaFunk.com contacted us a while back to let us know about the site; we took a look, and we thought it was pretty cool, so we wanted to drop you a quick note about it.

PhilaFunk is "a social music store (like iTunes + Myspace in one)." You can create a free account and label yourself as either a band or a user. With a band account, you'll be able to upload as much music as you want and sell it through the site under a pretty sweet distribution deal: you get 80% of the song sale revenues! Try to get that kind of deal out of a record label! As a user, you can put up a profile on the site, meet other people who are into the same music, and check out interesting indie bands. You can preview about a minute of any song on the site, then, if you like it, buy the song or the whole album for the usual online music store price (on average, 99 cents or $10, respectively).

The only slightly uncool thing is you can't just buy stuff with regular money on the site, and you won't get paid that way, either - instead, you work with PhilaFunk credits. One equals one US dollar, and you have to buy them through PayPal before you can buy any songs. As a band, in order to get real money, you have to earn at least $50 in credits, then you can request a check.

But hey, if that's what they need to do to make things work, it doesn't sound like too much of an inconvenience, especially considering what a cool deal it is for indie bands, and how easy it makes it for music lovers to support those bands. Although the site is Philly-based, there are bands and users from all over the country, so there should be something for everybody. Anyway, we think it's a cool idea. Check it out and see if you think so, too.

Photo of the admittedly unrelated Philly Funk-O-Mart by Flickr user jcroft