Shouting Through The Letterbox

Finnish entrepreneur Timo Poijärvi reckons his Hitlantis search box will make it easier for fans to find what they want on an online music site.

Complaining that using a search box to find what you want is like “shouting through the letterbox of a record shop,” he says he’s developed a way to make it much easier to browse.

Hitlantis arranges its catalogue as a huge circle of bubbles, with each bubble representing a band.

A band’s proximity to the centre is based on their recent popularity, and the size of their bubble is dictated by the amount of content a band has available and the number of fans they have on the site.

One potential downside is the fact Poijärvi’s masterpiece is solely for unsigned bands, who have to upload the content themselves and don’t get paid for streams.

However, acts are given the opportunity to pay five euros ($6.6) per month for a premium account, which allows them to sell recordings and keep 90 percent of the profits.

Poijärvi says that about 7 percent of the bands on the service have signed up for the premium offering.