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Shawn Fanning's New Venture

Posted by timothy on from the first-mover-advantage dept.

prostoalex writes "We've read about Justin Frankel, but what are the other heroes of the MP3 revolution up to? News.com.com.com tells the story of Shawn Fanning's new company. SnoCap (which changed its name from Open Copyright Database) is currently developing file-sharing mechanisms that would allow the music industry to earn money."

4 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. How good is this for the consumer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If people are sharing-files in some form of triangle scheme for sharing profits-- who controls the quality of the music bought? I refuse to pay for music that cannot guarantee high-quality bit-rate. And, what happens when only part of a song is downloaded that was paid for and it becomes impossible to resume the download, because the person(s) whom you were grabbing a copy from disconnect?

    1. Re:How good is this for the consumer? by larry+bagina · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I haven't tried Napster 2, walmart, buymusic, etc., but I get better download speeds from iTunes than I do from most p2p.

      Having a bittorrent-type distribution system with the online music store always on might work, but there would probably be too many problems wrt DRM.

      But what do I know? I've never run an unprofitable company with no business model before, Shawn has.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  2. OGG vs SnoCap by BoldAC · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Do not consider this a troll... (as I am sure your alarms are going off already) but I do not understand why this kid is getting rich as hell, and the makers of OGG are not.

    This kid just has an idea for a peer-to-peer system and he already has a large angel investor... the same angel investor that poured large amounts of money into napster. And the system doesn't even exist yet.

    On the otherhand, take OGG -- a kickass music format that we all love and cherish. A few advertising wizards could turn it into the standard music format on the internet. Where are the VCs and angel investors for OGG?

    OGG is a proven product that rocks. SnoCap is little more than white text on a blue background.

    SnoCap will make money because non-tech people remember that napster exploded with potential. SnoCap will make money because investors see that I-Tunes is working.

    OGG will struggle because the non-tech investing community doesn't understand the power of a new and better music format.

    The world is twisted.

    AC

  3. Love Your Enemy by BoldAC · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Shawn is a smart, articulate guy. That goes a long way," said one source familiar with Fanning's discussions with record labels. "He walks in a world that they desperately want access to."

    If I were this group of record companies... I would kill myself and do the world a favor.

    Wait...

    If I were this group of record companies, I would hire a kid like this in a heartbeat. He is likely to understand the peer-to-peer community much more than the record executives. He's help people do it the free and easy way... and maybe he can transition everybody into a more "legit" method of music transfer.

    I don't think the record execs are scared of this guy... I think they are having wet dreams about his re-securing their monolopy on music.

    What is this kid likely to do? We'll just have to wait and see. He's probably smart enough that he could sweet talk his way into a lot of vaporware dollars...

    AC