If you’re like most iPod owners who have a 30 gig player or higher, more than likely you have it filled to the brim with songs and chances are half of those songs rarely get listened to unless you press shuffle. And even then, you’re still leaving many tracks out, because getting through 8,000 songs is quite a chore.

University of Georgia graduate Adam Wexler had the same problem, but he turned this complication into a creative website called Rank ‘em.

What is Rank ‘em? Wexler, the CEO and creator of the site, sat down with Athens Blur Magazine and gave us an inside look at this budding site and gave us a glimpse into its future.

“In its most basic form, we have created a platform for all music fans all over the world to rank their favorite songs from all of their favorite artists,” says Wexler, “and when you combine the favorites from each individual artist, it creates a powerful resource that any one can use, whether they’re the most casual music observer or a die hard music fanatic.”

From the looks of things, the site will be quite a resource for those trying to discover music from artists they are unfamiliar with, enabling users to quickly find the songs that are most loved by true fans, rather than finding tracks that were the most “radio-friendly” but not necessarily a showcase of the artist’s best material.

Wexler gives a good example of this using Radiohead.

“‘Creep’ is on the top of the iTunes and Amazon list, there’s no doubt about it.” says Wexler. “‘Creep’ barely cracks our top 10 because we’re actually polling the true Radiohead fans who have listened to all of their material. They know that songs like “Paranoid Android” and “Reckoner” are some of their best songs.”

When it comes to the rankings, the site is artist specific, meaning that you can only rank songs underneath one artist at a time. There is no comparison between separate artists.

“You turn on ESPN and they are comparing basketball plays to football plays, and those aren’t the same. I mean those aren’t apples to apples,” Wexler explains. “It’s like, you can do a classic rock countdown, but Bruce Springsteen song A and Tom Petty song A, how can you really compare them? But what you can compare is Tom Petty song A to Tom Petty song B. I think that’s as fair of a comparison as you’re going to find.”

And that is exactly what Rank ‘em offers. If the site can garner enough users, the sky is the limit on what it can be used for.

Rank ‘em could be the host of their own Billboard-esque chart, listing the top artists and songs of the week.

Artists’ themselves can use the site to figure out what their fans favorite songs are in a particular region, thus making the task of choosing a set-list much easier.

Radio stations can see what listeners in their area are listening to, thus making a playlist specific for locals.

All of these are scenarios for Rank ‘em’s future, but really, the site’s fate is in the hands of the users.

One thing the site does not have is a way to sample the songs you are either ranking yourself, or looking up.

In Rank ‘em’s defense, Wexler explains, “It’s never been my intention to create a streaming destination. There are already so many streaming sites out there. If we’re going to get ahead, then that’s not our niche that we need to focus on.”

“In my opinion what will make us unique is the fact that there is no site out there that is trying to sort through the catalogs of each and every artist of all time.”

Still, it seems that a website whose sole purpose is to introduce newbies to different artists, would at least have a small sound clip to go along with it.

“If we had the money to do so, our clips would be on the site in a heart beat,” Wexler says. “So by no means are we trying to avoid that, because that could really help us out.”

In November, Rank ‘em added a new feature that allows users to watch videos of the songs they have chosen through Youtube. You must keep ranking songs to gain access to more videos, but that’s why you’re at the Rank ‘em website in the first place. Right?

Like all budding companies, the kinks will be worked out in time, when the money, and the patronage begins to blossom.

It’s been over two years since the idea for Rank ‘em officially fleshed out into an actual site and a lot of work and research has gone into its production. Just a few months ago, the site went from Private Alpha to Private Beta status.

Basically, in the site’s early days, you could access Rank ‘em, but visually speaking, there wasn’t much to it. The site was at its most basic form, but as Wexler explained, in the beginning, he just wanted people to visit the site and start ranking as much as possible, because, the more users who rank their favorites, the more the site will be helpful as a music discovery resource.

After the site’s initial launch, Wexler went out and did a bunch of guerrilla-type marketing for the site’s Private Alpha version. For example, dressing up like a billboard outside of a Wilco concert at Athens’ Classic Center, and promoting the site. But, at that time, the site wasn’t ready for full-fledged advertising.

When Private Beta was finally announced for the site, a large amount of updates were all released at one time, thus putting Rank ‘em in the ready-to-be-shown-off category.

“We’ve got over 400,000 artists, over 7 million songs.” Wexler explains. “It’s a pretty good collection, but at the same time by no means is it all encompassing because there are millions upon millions of artists out there.”

Visit Rank ‘em at www.gorankem.com.

- Jessica Cole