Interesting session over at Life 2.0 today about vSide. Andrew Littlefield the CCO of Doppleganger gave a short talk about the aims and capabilties of their flagship product – vSide.

The discussion ranged across a spectrum of issues including the demographic of the world ( teens) , its content, size, concurrency and other issues, none of which were necessarilly all that remarkable. However I probed a little deeper about the musical content of vSide asking “What is the process of music getting into vSide ? How do you chose what music you play / promote in your environment ? Is there user generated music in there ?”

Andrew answered that yes there was user generated content – which is implemented through a forum process of submitting audio for specific places and specific times, and they choose the other commercial content via an “experienced DJ”. So effectively they, and their partners ( record labels ) choose it.

It seems vSide is shaping up to be a very specific environment, with targeted branding / advertising and a very specific musical pallette. Personally I’m not sure that it will succeed in its attempts in moderation and control, infact that would probably drive the market they are aiming at away, but if they secure some cool exclusive acts playing in vSide and ONLY vSide or vSide only track releases .. perhaps it could succeed. As far as other musical applications go – vSide doesn’t seem to be a suitable platform at all.