Posted by
ryuzaki0
on from the consolidation-is-the-name-of-the-game dept.
kriston writes "AOL
has just acquired the MP3[?] player WinAmp, the Spinner Networks
online music service, and SHOUTcast streaming audio
software." Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.
In my mind, this calls into question some rather large industry alliances. Where does AOL officially stand with regard to Micros~1? Possibly more important, where does AOL stand with relation to the RIAA? Anyone have semi-detailed information on either of these?
To my knowledge, Micros~1 is signed on with the SDMI, which would put them on the side of the RIAA.
Hmmmmm...
With the impending release of Micros~1's new mp3-capable Media Player, AOL now owns (at least) two large (in terms of users) pieces of software that directly compete with Micro$oft. I'm curious to see what Microsoft's reaction to this will be, and even more curious about their current relations with AOL.
Despite my personal distaste (slight understatement) for AOL, unless they're up to something really senaky, I can see some very good things coming from their ownership of the most popular mp3 player in the world. At a bare minimum, this should result in more people using the mp3 format, which will hopefully bury the SDMI before they can even release it.
Does AOL really have this much balls? Do they dare stand opposed to both Micros~1 and the RIAA?
I can't wait to see how this one plays out:)
--
"I think any time you expose vulnerabilities it's a good thing."
-Attorney General Janet Reno
Well, I think some people are bashing AOL in a knee-jerk type fashion. It seems we're calling a different company "The Next Microsoft" every day.
On the other hand, I don't exactly have the warm fuzzies. AOL's been picking up high profile netgadgets lately (Netscape, Instant Messenger {was this ICQ?}, now Shoutcast and WinAMP). I would guess that they are trying to corner the market on hip cybertools, so as too attract even more users to their network service.
There's nothing intrinsically wrong with wanting to be popular, but AOL's current software practices leave a lot to be desired in the area of privacy, and forced advertising. These new aquisitions might turn out to be harmless party favours promoting the AOL name, or they might turn into trogan-horse like demographic harvesters. It'll probably be a little of both. I personally hate adware (even though it allows "free" services, I know) and hope that people develop marketing-free alternatives. Maybe I'll even be able to help:)
I don't know how serious they are about promoting open software either. They do seem to have left a good part of netscape/mozilla intact, but I'm still not convinced they really want to give anything back to the net without strings attached.
Now's a good time to check out the alternatives, namely Icecast, a free project under very active development which provides a Shoutcast-compatible streaming MP3 server, encoding client, directory server, live interaction tools, and more. My experiences with Icecast have been very productive -- IMO, it provides a much greater level of flexibility than the proprietary flavors (surprise, surprise)
Now if someone would just roll out a decent MP3 streaming client for Mac so I can ditch all these Real servers...
Having a huge force like AOL behind an MP3 company could actually be a good thing as it throws major big bucks MP3. I would love to see RIAA and AOL battle it out. -- Deepak Saxena 1999 - Year of the Penguin
--
Deepak Saxena
1999 - Year of the Penguin
Linux Demo Day '99 - http://www.linuxdemo.org
The community can kill two birds with one stone. Just find yourself a new MP3 player.
1) This will make small companies think twice about selling to a mindless corporation and, 2) This will make mindless corporations think twice about purchasing such a company if they think everyone will walk.
A lot of the messages responding to this (very strange) turn of events are basically saying "Oh, no, AOL is another monopoly." This, quite frankly, is NOT true. There are many, many things I dislike about AOL, and they are a very large company, but they are not a Monopoly, and while this turn of events is shocking, I don't consider it terribly dangerous. Here's why:
1. Monopolies must own a huge majority of the markets they control in order to truly be monopolies. As far as the Internet goes, I doubt very much that this is the case: while AOL may be one of the largest online services around, the sheer number of people on the internet, whether through large ISP's like GTE or BellSouth, or through local ISP's, keeps AOL from the Lion's share of marketshare. Also, since ISP's don't need to own most of the market to stay in business, I see little danger (at this point) of ISP's going belly up en masse and leaving us with only AOL and a few others.
2. WinAmp is a very popular MP3 player, but it's not the only one out there -- and if I recall correctly, it's currently being sued for illegally using a proprietary MP3 codec. There are plenty of MP3 players out there -- some freely available -- for people to use if AOL decides to hike up the price significantly.
3. IceCast is a free software implementation of AOL's purchase, so there seems little danger of that capability being denied from the world at large.
Because of those three points, it seems unlikely AOL's purchases will be any significant threat to their respective markets, so long as everyone is wary and keeps a close eye on AOL's future actions.
Besides that, they continued to support Mozilla after they bought Netscape, didn't they? That should be some encouragement...
-- Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
AOL to buy WinZip?
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5
Anyone notice this little blurb on the Yahoo report?
"Nullsoft is the developer of Winamp, the leading branded MP3 player for Windows, and SHOUTcast, an MP3 streaming audio system. With 15 million total downloads, Winamp has an installed base of 5 million users and is the No. 2 most popular application on Download.com after ICQ, averaging more than 43,000 downloads daily."
From the desk of an AOL executive... Number 1: ICQ (acquired) Number 2: WinAmp (acquired) Number 3: WinZip Number 4: Netscape (acquired)
The results of last weeks top downloads at Download.com are listed above, in that order. Scary that AOL owns three of four, eh? I think so.... -"AOHell. The good old days"
nullsoft was desperate for money due to the suit filed by Playmedia. When AOL offered to buy nullsoft the small company, they must have seen this as an opportunity to prevent losing this case (even though playmedia had virtually no case against them).
Nullsoft Founder and President Justin Frankel said: ``Working with America Online will let us globally extend the use of our technologies through its Internet brands. In addition, having access to America Online's
tremendous resources and infrastructure will let focus our efforts on what's really important: Making cool software.''
tremendous resources to pay lawyers to get playmedia off our backs . . .
maybe i'm reading between the lines, but it does make sense.
why would they get rid of Nitrane to replace it with that crappy decoder they use now unless they were scared?
Wow, I happen to know a number of people in the digital audio space, but this was not expected. I can tell you guys that there will be another absolutely jaw-dropping announcement in under a month, so brace yourself, because the industry is in for a ride.
The $400M seemed to be for both companies, no? I'm guessing that the vast majority of that went to Spinner.com, seeing as that A) Spinner was already traded and is a pretty considerably sized company and B) notice how Nullsoft is moving but nobody else is?
It's important to realize here that this does not mean that MP3s are going to become open. Everybody already knows about Icecast and FreeAmp, and AOL acquiring Nullsoft has (duh) nothing to do with the MP3 format as a whole. This is not about formats, it's about AOL acquiring media properties to be able to best serve its customers with a really neat, compelling multimedia experience. Go look at Wired Planet -- this is what I see AOL pulling off, but with a huge amount of music content.
I understand the anti-AOL sentiment. I, too, was there in the first part of this decade and felt the Internet shift when morons from Joe4422@AOL.COM started posting to sci.physics. But this may be part of an image shift, too. AOL isn't just a crappy service provider any more. They own a very hefty chunk of the world's software Intellectual Property now, including some very neat companies they picked up with their acquisition of Netscape. Give them some credit. They're a different company now, or are at least trying to be. And hey, I'd sure like to get bought out for a few million, vest, and then leave -- wouldn't you? David E. Weekly (dew, Think)
Slashdot Mirror
This is very interesting.
:)
In my mind, this calls into question some rather large industry alliances. Where does AOL officially stand with regard to Micros~1? Possibly more important, where does AOL stand with relation to the RIAA? Anyone have semi-detailed information on either of these?
To my knowledge, Micros~1 is signed on with the SDMI, which would put them on the side of the RIAA.
Hmmmmm...
With the impending release of Micros~1's new mp3-capable Media Player, AOL now owns (at least) two large (in terms of users) pieces of software that directly compete with Micro$oft. I'm curious to see what Microsoft's reaction to this will be, and even more curious about their current relations with AOL.
Despite my personal distaste (slight understatement) for AOL, unless they're up to something really senaky, I can see some very good things coming from their ownership of the most popular mp3 player in the world. At a bare minimum, this should result in more people using the mp3 format, which will hopefully bury the SDMI before they can even release it.
Does AOL really have this much balls? Do they dare stand opposed to both Micros~1 and the RIAA?
I can't wait to see how this one plays out
"I think any time you expose vulnerabilities it's a good thing." -Attorney General Janet Reno
Well, I think some people are bashing AOL in a knee-jerk type fashion. It seems we're calling a different company "The Next Microsoft" every day.
:)
On the other hand, I don't exactly have the warm fuzzies. AOL's been picking up high profile netgadgets lately (Netscape, Instant Messenger {was this ICQ?}, now Shoutcast and WinAMP). I would guess that they are trying to corner the market on hip cybertools, so as too attract even more users to their network service.
There's nothing intrinsically wrong with wanting to be popular, but AOL's current software practices leave a lot to be desired in the area of privacy, and forced advertising. These new aquisitions might turn out to be harmless party favours promoting the AOL name, or they might turn into trogan-horse like demographic harvesters. It'll probably be a little of both. I personally hate adware (even though it allows "free" services, I know) and hope that people develop marketing-free alternatives. Maybe I'll even be able to help
I don't know how serious they are about promoting open software either. They do seem to have left a good part of netscape/mozilla intact, but I'm still not convinced they really want to give anything back to the net without strings attached.
Now if someone would just roll out a decent MP3 streaming client for Mac so I can ditch all these Real servers...
Having a huge force like AOL behind an MP3 company could actually be a good thing as it throws major big bucks MP3. I would love to see RIAA and AOL battle it out.
--
Deepak Saxena
1999 - Year of the Penguin
Deepak Saxena
1999 - Year of the Penguin
Linux Demo Day '99 - http://www.linuxdemo.org
The community can kill two birds with one stone. Just find yourself a new MP3 player.
1) This will make small companies think twice about selling to a mindless corporation and,
2) This will make mindless corporations think twice about purchasing such a company if they think everyone will walk.
This is our revolution and it's not for sale.
Quux26
My
Quux26
www.crashspace.net
A lot of the messages responding to this (very strange) turn of events are basically saying "Oh, no, AOL is another monopoly." This, quite frankly, is NOT true. There are many, many things I dislike about AOL, and they are a very large company, but they are not a Monopoly, and while this turn of events is shocking, I don't consider it terribly dangerous. Here's why:
1. Monopolies must own a huge majority of the markets they control in order to truly be monopolies. As far as the Internet goes, I doubt very much that this is the case: while AOL may be one of the largest online services around, the sheer number of people on the internet, whether through large ISP's like GTE or BellSouth, or through local ISP's, keeps AOL from the Lion's share of marketshare. Also, since ISP's don't need to own most of the market to stay in business, I see little danger (at this point) of ISP's going belly up en masse and leaving us with only AOL and a few others.
2. WinAmp is a very popular MP3 player, but it's not the only one out there -- and if I recall correctly, it's currently being sued for illegally using a proprietary MP3 codec. There are plenty of MP3 players out there -- some freely available -- for people to use if AOL decides to hike up the price significantly.
3. IceCast is a free software implementation of AOL's purchase, so there seems little danger of that capability being denied from the world at large.
Because of those three points, it seems unlikely AOL's purchases will be any significant threat to their respective markets, so long as everyone is wary and keeps a close eye on AOL's future actions.
Besides that, they continued to support Mozilla after they bought Netscape, didn't they? That should be some encouragement...
Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
Anyone notice this little blurb on the Yahoo report?
"Nullsoft is the developer of Winamp, the leading branded MP3 player for Windows, and SHOUTcast, an MP3 streaming audio system. With 15 million total downloads, Winamp has an installed base of 5 million users and is the No. 2 most popular application on Download.com after ICQ, averaging more than 43,000 downloads daily."
From the desk of an AOL executive...
Number 1: ICQ (acquired)
Number 2: WinAmp (acquired)
Number 3: WinZip
Number 4: Netscape (acquired)
The results of last weeks top downloads at Download.com are listed above, in that order.
Scary that AOL owns three of four, eh? I think so....
-"AOHell. The good old days"
well i think we all know why.
nullsoft was desperate for money due to the suit filed by Playmedia. When AOL offered to buy nullsoft the small company, they must have seen this as an opportunity to prevent losing this case (even though playmedia had virtually no case against them).
tremendous resources to pay lawyers to get playmedia off our backs . . .
maybe i'm reading between the lines, but it does make sense.
why would they get rid of Nitrane to replace it with that crappy decoder they use now unless they were scared?
The $400M seemed to be for both companies, no? I'm guessing that the vast majority of that went to Spinner.com, seeing as that A) Spinner was already traded and is a pretty considerably sized company and B) notice how Nullsoft is moving but nobody else is?
It's important to realize here that this does not mean that MP3s are going to become open. Everybody already knows about Icecast and FreeAmp, and AOL acquiring Nullsoft has (duh) nothing to do with the MP3 format as a whole. This is not about formats, it's about AOL acquiring media properties to be able to best serve its customers with a really neat, compelling multimedia experience. Go look at Wired Planet -- this is what I see AOL pulling off, but with a huge amount of music content.
I understand the anti-AOL sentiment. I, too, was there in the first part of this decade and felt the Internet shift when morons from Joe4422@AOL.COM started posting to sci.physics. But this may be part of an image shift, too. AOL isn't just a crappy service provider any more. They own a very hefty chunk of the world's software Intellectual Property now, including some very neat companies they picked up with their acquisition of Netscape. Give them some credit. They're a different company now, or are at least trying to be. And hey, I'd sure like to get bought out for a few million, vest, and then leave -- wouldn't you?
David E. Weekly (dew, Think)
David E. Weekly
Code / Think / Teach / Learn
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