This is just version 1. We launched with Facebook connect only because that was the fastest way we could launch it in a usable way. When you connect, we grab the artists you like on Facebook to generate your personal feed. There will be other ways to sign up soon!
So if you sign up with another method, then you can manage which bands you like on the service itself? Will we also manage relationships with other users on the service? From the way the TechCrunch piece was worded, it almost seemed like FB integration was central to the value offered to users and artists.
Yes you'll be able to manage it yourself. We are working on a tool to let you search for artists to follow and to suggest you similar artists to follow.
OK, that changes my impression of the service quite a bit. Do you guys have a blog? You might want to make more such information available there and put a link to your blog or about page on the landing page. Relying on third parties like TechCrunch for communication might be problematic. Rock on!
I think it's more to do with wanting to use Facebook's API to go viral.
That + Helping artist's content go viral as well (most artists don't understand viral Facebook integrations - so with Hipset we're automatically doing it for all of them)