INTERNET SITE CokeMusic gets users involved

Web site members create personal online personas and unique music tracks.
By ERIC GOODWIN
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Coca-Cola has put together an excellent, interactive music Web site -- not bad for a beverage company.
If a visit to CokeMusic (www.cokemusic.com) doesn't leave you bobbing your head and tapping your feet, maybe you have no appreciation for the joys of music.
To take advantage of CokeMusic's fun features, you'll have to become a member of the site (membership is free). Once you join you can create a V-ego, a personal online persona. More than an alias, your V-ego is also a visual representation of who you are or who you'd like to be.
Like characters in the video game "The Sims," you can dress your V-ego in clothes that reflect your fashion sense and personality.
Your V-ego can also interact with other V-egos in the virtual Coke Studios -- think simulated concert venue meets night club -- housed on the site.
You can also redeem points from purchasing Coca-Cola products to enter special prize drawings. The music- and entertainment-related prizes range from stereo systems to a trip for three to the American Music Awards.
Music-making
The main activity that will keep you coming back to CokeMusic, however, is the site's music-maker section. This activity allows you to play DJ, mixing up to five different instruments to create your own unique beats.
You can either create tracks within a specific music genre or mix and match sounds from different ones (for example, mixing a slide guitar hook from country music with a drum beat from hip-hop). You can save up to five songs that you can also share with others in the Coke Studios section.
Although the tracks you create in music-maker are only one minute long, the process of creating them can be so addictive that you may spend hours crafting one!
Combine the V-egos, prize drawings and the music-maker together with streaming radio, artist profiles and interactive quizzes, and you've got a full-featured site that will make long afternoons pass very quickly.