TastemakerX：像炒股一樣炒明星

????股票經紀人在發掘下一個Lady Gaga方面是否擁有優勢呢？大概不會吧。然而，社交游戲TastemakerX的聯合創始人馬克?魯辛及桑德羅?普格里斯希望使發掘下一個熱門藝人看起來更像是紐約證券交易所（the New York Stock Exchange）的投資活動。這款游戲可以使玩家發掘、支持新的樂隊，它經過了幾個月的試運行之后，已經于上周四正式上線。

????這家公司成立于2011年，構想是讓玩家通過買賣某藝人的“股票”來發掘樂壇新人，而這些股票的漲跌取決于一系列因素，包括哪些人在一直買入該股票，以及相關藝人在網上及線下所獲得的市場關注程度。玩家的回報則是賺取游戲的虛擬貨幣“notes”。它相當于現實世界里吹牛的資本：比如，某不知名的樂隊成為大熱門之前自己曾是它的伯樂。目前在該游戲中，已有95,000多個音樂藝人通過了該軟件的“首次公開募股（IPO）”計算程序，該程序根據一系列指標來決定其“股票”的初始價格，比如該藝人的作品在另一個音樂發現服務網站Last.fm上被播放的次數以及在Facebook上被“喜歡”的人數。

????因此，該公司一部分業務就在離紐交所不遠的曼哈頓諾荷區（NoHo）運營也就完全合情合理了。同時擔任公司首席技術官（CTO）的普格里斯在紐約處理業務，而公司首席執行官魯辛則在舊金山執掌公司。（TastemakerX不僅橫跨美國東西兩岸，而且還橫跨兩國：該公司在墨西哥瓜達拉哈拉聘有大量軟件開發人員。）

????考慮到這款游戲的精神特質，該公司植根于紐約可謂得其所哉。行業雜志網站《數字音樂新聞》（Digital Music News）創始人兼主編保羅?雷斯尼科夫說：“紐約布魯克林現在經歷著一股音樂復興的洪流。從這個角度來看，紐約或許是它落戶之地的首選?！保ㄆ崭窭锼棺≡诓剪斂肆值腄UMBO街區附近）

????這并不是魯辛和普格里斯第一次從紐約樂壇中獲益。他倆最初在哈密爾頓學院（Hamilton College）相識，而且都在百代唱片公司（EMI）工作過。1993年，他倆去紐約市下東區（Lower East Side）溫馨的Fez Under Time Cafe bar咖啡酒吧觀看過一場表演。在舞臺上表演的是當時尚未出名的杰夫?巴克利——這位有重大影響的音樂藝人直到1997年英年早逝之后才獲得了主流媒體的大量報道。普格里斯說：“當時我環顧四周，看到這么多的音樂業內人士都露出驚艷的表情，我從來沒見過這種情形。我們現在正努力讓人們及早發現像杰夫?巴克利這樣的明星藝人?！?/p>

????Do stockbrokers have an edge in discovering the next Lady Gaga? Probably not. But Marc Ruxin and Sandro Pugliese, co-founders of the social game TastemakerX, want to make finding the next hit artist look more like the New York Stock Exchange. The game, which allows players to unearth and support new bands, officially launched on Thursday, after months in beta mode.

????Founded in 2011, the idea is for users to discover new bands by buying and selling an artist's "stock," which rises and falls depending on factors that include who's been buying it and the amount of buzz an artist is getting on and offline. Players get rich by earning "notes," the game's form of currency. In the real world, this translates to bragging rights: being the first to spot an unknown band before they're blowing up the airwaves. The pool of over 95,000 musical artists in the game have passed through the software's "IPO" algorithm, which determines a "stock's" initial pricing based on metrics like number of plays on Last.fm -- another music discovery service -- and Facebook "likes."

????So it is only fitting that part of the company's operations take place not too far from the NYSE, in Manhattan's NoHo neighborhood. Pugliese, who is also CTO, handles business in New York while CEO Ruxin heads the company from San Francisco. (Not only is TastemakerX bi-coastal, it's also bi-national; it has a throng of developers in Guadalajara, Mexico.)

????Considering the ethos of the game, the company's New York roots might be spot on. "There's a tremendous musical renaissance in Brooklyn right now. From that standpoint, there may be no better place to be," says Paul Resnikoff, who runs the trade publication website Digital Music News. (Pugliese lives in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn.)

????And this isn't the first time proximity to the New York's music scene has helped Ruxin and Pugliese. In 1993, the two, who met at Hamilton College and both worked at record label EMI, went to a performance at the intimate Fez Under Time Cafe bar on the Lower East Side of New York City. On stage was a then-unknown Jeff Buckley, the seminal musician who didn't amass much mainstream exposure until his untimely death in 1997. "I looked around and I've never seen so many music industry people with their jaws dropped," says Pugliese. "We're trying to get people to discover the Jeff Buckleys earlier."