Help find festival stars of the future

The idea of Bandwagon is for music fans to hook up with like-minded individuals online and have a direct affect on the industry by collectively deciding which bands are good enough to make it big. 

Like MySpace, bands and artists are able to build up their network of friends and fans with a view to catching the attention of independent labels, managers, and, potentially, festival bookers.

Launched just before Christmas, the site is the first of its kind dedicated to UK music. It hopes to harness the current internet craze, which has seen bands like Arctic Monkeys and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah become overnight success stories by making their songs available online for free.   

Bandwagon has been designed to streamline all the good aspects of MySpace, while avoiding some of the navigational failings that make it difficult to find what you want on the US site, which is becoming increasingly used as a music finding forum.

Huw Thomas, managing director of Bandwagon, said: "We were frustrated by the cumbersome nature of MySpace and other social networking portals. We knew there were some great bands on there and we wanted to hear them, but we struggled to find them. We thought that something specific was needed and that's how Bandwagon was born."

As well as  chatting to new mates, music fans will be able to search by genre and browse their favourite bands, create homepages and profiles, write reviews and blogs, and start topic discussions. Who knows, your opinion of a certain band could help them get booked for Glasto 2007!

The site will also offer online streaming, downloads, videos, and real tunes to mobile phones - giving bands the chance to make a bit of cash by selling their music.

Bandwagon is also running a series of competitions, including a 'Best Of UK Unsigned' contest in conjunction with EMI.

There's already hundreds of labels and artists already signed up, so take a look for yourself at www.bandwagon.co.uk.