As an abundance of user-generated content continues to appear on the Web, mechanisms for separating wheat and chaff increase in importance. Influential companies such as Digg Inc. may point the way to the future of democratically filtered content, but thus far, the thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down functions of most Web 2.0 sites are largely underused and ineffective. As one VC said to me recently, "What's more depressing than the comments section of a YouTube video?"

One reason Digg has distinguished itself is that it combines a particular kind of user base with a sort of layered rating system, in which not only are Web pages and articles "dugg up," but so are the people doing the "digging." And so it may come to pass, soon, that when we have a critical mass of user-generated content on the Web, the best-positioned companies will be the ones that stress the importance of rating the raters, splitting the difference between editorial control and anarchic disarray.

One new startup is applying that approach to music reviews, which have flourished in the blogosphere to the point of excess. ImTheMusic.com, which revealed itself earlier this month at an SF New Tech event on the same day it launched on Facebook, intends to gather reviews and reviewers into one place, then allow readers to rate them so that experienced or thoughtful reviewers' opinions rise to the top. A user's reputation isn't just based on others' opinions, though -- it gets stronger if the user is a frequent visitor and prolific writer. "People are rewarded for being involved," says co-founder Roseanne Wincek.

The company's strategy puts it in somewhat indirect competition with MOG Inc., a music blogging site backed by Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment Inc. as well as The Angels' Forum, but ImTheMusic seems to stress reputation management more than any of its peers. The process yields a considerable amount of raw user-to-user data, which Wincek says the company will find more ways to use in the future. Unlike MOG, however, ImTheMusic isn't interested in cataloging users' music collections and listening habits (yet).

To date, the company has just three employees, all of whom are involved in other projects, but ImTheMusic has already collected more than a thousand reviews from a few hundred users in its first days of existence, Wincek says. As it prepares to launch on OpenSocial and eventually the Web, the business is subsisting on a small quantity of friends-and-family funding, but is already generating revenues through a relationship with ad network VideoEgg Inc. She adds that the company is currently cash-flow-positive on an admittedly small level, but ImTheMusic expects to take in an angel round in the coming months. -- Paul Bonanos