Interview With Lucas Gonze of Webjay

Richard MacManus writes "I've published an interview with Lucas Gonze, creator of the P2P music-sharing web app Webjay. Lucas was an early developer of peer-to-peer applications and back in 2000 he created a P2P start-up called World OS (the product was called Goa). In this interview we discuss World OS / Goa, how it compared to other P2P apps such as Gnutella, the 'Internet as Platform' concept, how Webjay works, some P2P History and Decentralization Theory, and ways around the legal hassles of P2P."

Comments

How in the world...

[JoeLinux]

Do you see p2p becoming anything other than an academic plaything? It's inherent "sometimes" nature (Sometimes you'll find the file you are looking for, sometimes it's busy/not found due to you not having the right connections) would seem to run counter to most business' requirements for reliability. How do you plan on redressing this?

Joe

Re:p2p is dying.

[Drakonian]

It is dying like all illegal things eventually do - speeding, jay-walking, drinking during the prohibition, etc?

music industry revolution

[ozloy]

i'm sure it's been said before, but i haven't seen it put this way:

why don't artists just give away their music, and charge for concerts?

the cost of distributing used to be the promotion of a cd, the making of the cds, yadda. but with p2p those costs go to nothing.

artists don't make much on cd sales anyways
they make most of their money on concerts as it is.
(from what i've heard)

Re:music industry revolution

[gregmac]

just playing devil's advocate here, but:

why don't artists just give away their music, and charge for concerts?

the cost of distributing used to be the promotion of a cd, the making of the cds, yadda. but with p2p those costs go to nothing.

the cost of a CD is more than just distributing: it is also the manufacture of the cd (ok, this again goes to $0 when you just go via P2P), cost of recording, administrative overhead, ....

Recording music is not cheap. While yes, it is possible to setup a home recording studio fairly inexpensivly that sounds decent, to get really good quality sound you're paying lots of money (for example, a good studio mic can run thousands of dollars). Building a studio is expensive, and thus renting one is expensive. Not to mention, you have to pay your sound engineer, support staff, etc.

Also, someone's gotta figure out how you're doing with fans (which is much harder to do with P2P than CD sales). Are you popular enough in Toronto that it's worth looking into playing a concert there?

You've also got to pre-pay for a lot of the production - renting a stage if required, sound gear, lights, trucks (if touring), paying security, roadies, hotels, food..

Now, here's the big problem. Where do you get that money? Do you go to the bank and say "hey look, I need $80,000 to put on this concert.."? Perhaps mortgage your house or sell your car.. what happens if you only sell 20% of the tickets you expected, because 5 other bands that are bigger than you are playing the same city the same night (since that's the only way they can make money now)?

While I disagree a lot with the way record companies work, there's not many places that will spend $1-million on you, and if you don't "make it", just let it go..

Re:music industry revolution

[ozloy]

ok, so then current music industry corporates embrace p2p to get around the problems.
they provide the best p2p network with the highest quality files and broadest range
in return you lose privacy. they want to know who you listen to, where you physically are, other stuff that helps them determine which artist is the best investment

music execs invest the money for concerts on artists they think are worth it. if the concert is a success, the artist gets paid.

everything shifts from promotion of cd to promotion of concert.
all money exchange is done at the concert.

piracy issues avoided. it's not easy to download the concert experience.

plus i want to download and not feel guilty about it, damnit!
i'm hungry, gonna go eat.