Loudcrowd In Semi-Public Beta

Loudcrowd, the first title from Conduit Labs, has quietly moved into public beta. Or, at least, the possibly private beta is publicly available at beta.loudcrowd.com and linked to from Loudcrowd's new music blog. We first heard about Loudcrowd, an avatar-based rhythm game with virtual goods and social networking components,  in its private alpha mode over the summer, but now you can give it a go as well (if you couldn't before).

Users can create basic avatars and profiles before jumping into a dancing game based on keeping time to dance, pop, and electronic songs (so far) with the keyboard arrows. While dancing more unlocks more clothes for your avatar's closet and music track listings, it seems like the main driver and revenue source is the music itself.

Loudcrowd has begun including sets that are programmed by guest DJs, so you're likely to encounter music that you may not have heard before. Today's dances featured music spun by DJ Eli Escobar, pretty much all new to me. (In fact, when not playing the game, Loudcrowd doubles as a decent Internet radio station.) Clicking on the related album's cover--displayed for some time on the side bar--gives you the option to purchase it through Amazon or iTunes.

You can also unlock other tracks, dropped as "sweet loot" in a great mix of genres, to share with others when you DJ yourself.

Some of the socializing is a bit weird to me--each time you dance, you're prompted to whisper either a new or pre-selected phrase to someone else--but the music is catchy and the gameplay is, for me, a bit addictive. The customization options are also a bit limited for now, though this is still a semi-private beta, and you can only add items, it seems, through playing the game.

With an emphasis on socializing through avatars, it seems odd to me that you can't invest in more appearance-related virtual goods, but that may come. If not and music remains the primary product for sale, that wouldn't be too surprising as CEO Nabeel Hyatt has previously asked if music is the ideal virtual good.

Comments

[Nabeel Hyatt]

Thanks for the update to your folks at VWN. For the record we are definitely still in private beta, although like most private betas I'm sure diligent searching could lead to an invite code.

I'm not sure what "semi-public" means, perhaps you are referring to the fact that you can hear the music playing at Loudcrowd prior to needing to log in? We thought that would be a nice teaser.