Klassikal Musik: A Social Network for Classical Musicians

Looking around on Facebook the other day, I saw a link to Klassikal Musik, a new site currently in public beta that aims to become the social networking hub of the classical music world. Klassikal Musik's goal:

Connecting numerous professionals, students as well as fans. But we also plan to allow companies and institutions such as theatres and conservatories to register. This just the very beginning and there are many benefits to be reaped in the near future.

As a member on this site you can build a network, upload or listen to audio and video, create clubs, blogs and event listings, build a professional-looking profile page, and post on forums.

Looking at the members page, it looks like there is a steady stream of new people joining up, although mostly without their real names. One of the beauties of the MySpace and Facebook classical music communities is that you get to connect with other users without the cryptic userids commonly found in the forum scene. On the semi-anonymous forums, however (such as The New Forum for Classical Singers), you can engage in a level of gossip and cattiness that you could never get away with on Facebook, where your true identity is never in question. Klassikal Musik seems to be aiming to bring together the best features of both the forums and the social networks. Will they succeed in luring in the rank-and-file music students and professionals? Time will tell--stay tuned for the upcoming features about the growth of this engaging new community as they roll out new features in 2008.