I read about Usync last night in the latest issue of Rolling Stone.  Details were brief, but it's a system that allows artists to sell their music directly to their fans without record stores taking their cut of the profits.  This morning I thought I'd check it out and found the Usync site at www.usync.net.  But that's pretty much all I found.  The site is a gimmicky flash presentation that lacks any real content.  I still don't know how Usync works and I have no idea what artists are using the system.

The site does have an option to submit your e-mail address to 'find out what they're doing'.  But here's a crazy idea, why don't you tell us what you're doing on your website.  You know, create a 'web page' with 'information' and 'content'.

They also don't offer an e-mail address so you can directly communicate with the creators — which means they're not open to feedback.

For reference, using Google, I was able to find one artist using Usync, Mia Dyson.  Her site reveals that Usync is some sort of web-based content management system, as opposed to iTunes Music Store which requires iTunes to be installed.  It includes blogging and other such web stuff in addition to the store.  It wasn't immediately obvious to me that what I was looking on her site was Usync — the whole site.  I didn't expect it to be a pretty standard content management system.

I was excited about the idea of Usync but now I'm a little disappointed.  Sure it's great that it allows artists to sell stuff to their fans.  But I was expecting it to be a little more centralised and community-based.  I expected to be able to jump between artists sites seamlessly and post comments.  I expected to be able to shop between these sites like shopping on iTunes.  I expected watchlists, wishlists and other community-like features.  I expected a system that made me want to become a part of it.