I finally got a chance to check out Fairtilizer a new service that helps you discover new music from international artists. Fairtilizer bills itself as a “DIY amplifier”, which basically means that the community posts tracks to the staging area in the service where they are voted on by community members. Tracks that get a significant number of votes are then promoted to the Charting area.

Members have the ability to post content to a buffer area where Fairtilizer  determines if the track does not infringe on copyright and passes their editorial standards. Junior and Senior members, which I assume are verified artists and labels,  have the ability to circumvent the buffer zone. While the distinctions between membership tiers is undocumented and taxonomically  confusing, this approach is a good way to ensure legality and content quality.



The home page presents a list of all-time chart toppers that include descriptions, country of origin, genres, tags, rank, number of plays, and number of votes. You can also access charts for the month, week and day. You can also filter tracks by tag, country of origin, and genre - so for instance I can see all girl-based pop tracks from France (btw there are 2 to date). The filter controls could use a bit of redesigning as they seem to be scattered throughout the page and the # of tracks displayed in the pull down menus for country and genre don’t update as you add filters.

Tracks are played in a flash-based player on the right of the screen. Unfortunately when you navigate to another page, the playback stops. You can pop-up the tuner in a different window but it doesn’t work when you click play on a different track. The service allows you to comment on individual tracks and add them to a playlist. Playlists are easily managed and can be embedded in webpages and blogs.

Despite the many UI issues, the community-driven charting model does indeed result in some really great music discovery. In the short time I have used the service, i have found a variety of songs and bands I really like and would likely not have found. Fairtilizer is only available by invite at this time but you can request one at their site.