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Over the years, I have had a ton of people approach me about doing various startup ideas. For some reason, 90% that are pitched related to music. I immediately

by larrik 16y ago

Over the years, I have had a ton of people approach me about doing various startup ideas. For some reason, 90% that are pitched related to music. I immediately say no to any startup involving music. I know pg has the same policy now, but I've been saying it for about 10 years now, and my reasoning is a bit starker than pg's. Basically, there are only a handful companies making good money off of music, and you aren't going to be one of them. (the labels and Apple, basically) * This is slightly less true when you are including instrument makers, but musicians are an AWFUL market to try to sell to, since the only ones who actually make money tend to get everything free anyway through sponsorship deals. IE. musicians can't spend money, and if they can they won't anyway. P.S. To the guys in Glastonbury I recently spoke to through email and who I know read HN, this isn't directed at you, even if it may sound like it.

ra 16y ago
As a customer, paying a monthly subscription roughly on par with the price of a CD for "all you can eat" music is, I think, bloody good value. It seems to me that Spotify are killing it.
- JonnieCache 16y ago
  There may be some confusion here, ra means "killing it" in the inverted slang sense. "Killing it" here means "laying waste to all before them," rather than "destroying their own business model."
  - ra 16y ago
    "laying waste to all before them" That's exactly what I meant. Thanks for the clarification.
- larrik 16y ago
  I don't disagree with your post, but I'm having trouble seeing how it relates to mine. I wasn't saying you can't make good or valuable music companies. I'm just saying almost none of them make a decent profit, and therefore I won't touch them. I mean, satellite radio was basically built on talk shows. Or Pandora, the current winner in internet radio, from their IPO filing: "The company has brought in $90.1 million in revenue as of the first three months of its 2011 fiscal year and has lost only around $300,000." (VentureBeat) It's an industry where even the winners are failures.

by larrik 16y ago

ra 16y ago

As a customer, paying a monthly subscription roughly on par with the price of a CD for "all you can eat" music is, I think, bloody good value. It seems to me that Spotify are killing it.

JonnieCache 16y ago
There may be some confusion here, ra means "killing it" in the inverted slang sense. "Killing it" here means "laying waste to all before them," rather than "destroying their own business model."
- ra 16y ago
  "laying waste to all before them" That's exactly what I meant. Thanks for the clarification.
larrik 16y ago
I don't disagree with your post, but I'm having trouble seeing how it relates to mine. I wasn't saying you can't make good or valuable music companies. I'm just saying almost none of them make a decent profit, and therefore I won't touch them. I mean, satellite radio was basically built on talk shows. Or Pandora, the current winner in internet radio, from their IPO filing: "The company has brought in $90.1 million in revenue as of the first three months of its 2011 fiscal year and has lost only around $300,000." (VentureBeat) It's an industry where even the winners are failures.