My friend Dan just told me that his brother Larry is spreading the word about a new site that just launched called Figment.
In a nutshell, Figment is a site where you can explore and discover new bands without having to listen to any of their crappy music–because, there isn’t any. The goal is to create bands and albums that other people like enough to become fans of, like Pastor Of Muppets or Josie and the LOLcats.
I don’t know if it’ll catch on, but it might be worth a chuckle or two to check out the creativity behind some of these faux bands.
Programmer, husband, father, singer, guitarist, tinkerer, reverse engineer, strange, and living in New Jersey. 
Hello,
It’s Larry (Dan’s brother). Glad you enjoy Figment! It’s been a pet project for a long time and we’re really excited that it’s now open for all to play with.
Thanks again for sharing.
Larry
Hey, Larry, thanks for stopping by. Figment could definitely be a fun distraction, but it’s really missing something to make the experience “sticky” … after browsing around for a few minutes, there’s really not much to do.
Still, it’s a nice quick distraction and good for a few lulz. Thanks.
Hi!
I’m eric one of the other founders of Figment. Glad you enjoy the site and thanks for the post. We also appreciate the feedback. This is the first phase of the project, but we hope to make it much more robust in the future. For now though you can become a fan, buy an album and listen to that album once a week. When you do the band’s creator wins lucre and their bands/albums rise up the charts. You can also review albums which rewards the creator as well.
You can check out more on our blog at http://news.figment.cc/. There’s some great virtual tours, a simple “how to” on ways to support your favorite band and an interview w/ one of your favorites “Pastor of Muppets.”
Thanks again for giving us a try and writing us up!
Eric
Eric: I’m sure Figment will become a lot more fun and engaging as you add new features. The challenge is always whether you can add features quick enough to keep people’s interest, before they get bored and their attention goes elsewhere.
One thing that I’d immediately do which might improve the “social” aspect of the game is to display a random collection of up to 5 or 10 of a band’s “fans” and implement some form of messaging other than the band-page “shoutbox.” If people can’t communicate–they can’t socialize–then it’s not social software.
Dossy:
You’re right and your on the same wavelength as we are. We are planning to increase the social aspects so that band’s can see their fans and better communicate with them. I also agree that you have to move quickly to keep people engaged. Hopefully we can do so and keep users like yourself engaged. Keep the good feedback coming!
Eric