Handling label music is without a doubt a dead end. Startups who rely on doing so are certainly increasing their chances of failure; there is too much evidence

Handling label music is without a doubt a dead end. Startups who rely on doing so are certainly increasing their chances of failure; there is too much evidence available to dispute this. However, you can build applications that make use of label music without actually dealing with the labels. I'll preach the benefits of using the Echo Nest's platform[1] (which MOG uses for their playlists) until I'm blue in the face. They established a partnership a while ago with other music startups to provide label music access to startups. Through Echo Nest, startups can use label music in their applications by taking advantages of deals with companies such as 7digital (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-echo-nest-and-7digital-partner-to-give-developers-a-diy-online-music-store-platform-102072338.html http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-echo-nest-and-7d...). There's countless obstacles to reaching a repeatable and sustainable business model in the music industry, but these obstacles can be overcame. All industries put up such obstacles to new entrants. Is this not what startups are all about?