Sony Ericcson Music Maniacs Sparks No Mania Here

When Media in Canada covered off Sony Ericsson's Music Maniac launch from last week. I was perked.

A branded social community launch, built in Canada, based on mobile users and with a well-funded name brand sponsor. Given our interest as a company in word of mouth Influencers, we thought this might be an attempt to marry  the sweetspot of music aficionados with mobile fanatics.

If that was the expectation, this site falls well short and I would caution to call it a social network (in fairness, I need to spend more time with it, McAfee sent me a popup that it might be security risk site).

I won't comment on the animation, although clearly I'm either not the target or it's just not my thing - but that's subjective and the creative is clearly passable. What's wrong with it? I don't know what the purpose for joining is (it can't just be to create avatars), I don't see any public realm of socialization, I do see a lot of incentives and Sony plugs and I don't see a lot of value being provided to members (couldn't Sony at least pony up on some licensed characters from their entertainment division).

Hate to rip down a starter effort and I'll caveat my comments by thinking there might be more to come, but based on what I can see, the folks at Sony Ericsson need to hit the books on what creating social networks and community, branded or unbranded, is all about.