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They don't look so good compared to imeem.com, mog.com, last.fm, ilike.com though. I don't see flocks of people giving up on mainstream music. Your point that

by mikebo 17y ago

They don't look so good compared to imeem.com, mog.com, last.fm, ilike.com though. I don't see flocks of people giving up on mainstream music. Your point that free music is feasible for some music is valid, but I'm not sure it's that important if it's relegated to niche status.

jacquesm 17y ago
Imeem.com peaked over a year ago and has since just been declining, last.fm is pretty steady. Mog.com is relatively steady and ilike is going up fairly fast but that may have to do with their recent acquisition. The fact that thesixtyone is doing this under their own power and with indie music is very impressive, of course it could be that they will never be as big as their 'big label' brothers but so far they've been doing pretty good. And 400% growth per year essentially without marketing is not too bad either. They've got about 60,000 uniques daily now, I would not be surprised if they manage to push that to a quarter million by the end of next year. And why would people have to give up on mainstream music in order to listen to indie music, there is plenty of room for both.
- LogicHoleFlaw 17y ago
  last.fm launched their Xbox Live integration service today. I'm sitting here listening to it right now, and am very impressed. A landmark 2 million Xbox Live subscribers were logged in simultaneously last week with the launch of Modern Warfare 2 driving online presence. I imagine that last.fm will get a lot of new users with this expanded service.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    That's a very very clever move of them. Last.fm is one very savvy group of people. They've been 'on the ball' right from the get-go and I hope that they continue in the way they've been going.
- mikebo 17y ago
  I'm not out to knock thesixtyone.com -- my point was just that I don't see a big change in consumer preferences occurring when it comes to music. thesixtyone.com and others might be able to be successful as a niche product, but most consumers are looking to access major label content. Even if every new song from here on out was released in a threesixtyone.com model there is still a lot of demand for older content. That puts music startups in a tricky situation. Either you don't provide access to that mainstream content, provide it legally w/ label deals that hopefully don't cripple your business, or you offer it illegally. According to the wired article the ad supported streams model seems to be dying, which means music subs must be coming back for companies that choose the legal model. I'm personally not excited about this and hope they so do badly labels give ad supported another try.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    I think it is going to be a similar pattern as open source vs closed source, it will take time to get momentum, but I think that in the long term it's going to be unstoppable. As soon as people figure out a way to do a 'redhat' with music it will accelerate a lot. So far most of those efforts have fizzled, but with so many people trying to start fires it is only a matter of time before someone will succeed.

by mikebo 17y ago

jacquesm 17y ago

Imeem.com peaked over a year ago and has since just been declining, last.fm is pretty steady. Mog.com is relatively steady and ilike is going up fairly fast but that may have to do with their recent acquisition. The fact that thesixtyone is doing this under their own power and with indie music is very impressive, of course it could be that they will never be as big as their 'big label' brothers but so far they've been doing pretty good. And 400% growth per year essentially without marketing is not too bad either. They've got about 60,000 uniques daily now, I would not be surprised if they manage to push that to a quarter million by the end of next year. And why would people have to give up on mainstream music in order to listen to indie music, there is plenty of room for both.

LogicHoleFlaw 17y ago
last.fm launched their Xbox Live integration service today. I'm sitting here listening to it right now, and am very impressed. A landmark 2 million Xbox Live subscribers were logged in simultaneously last week with the launch of Modern Warfare 2 driving online presence. I imagine that last.fm will get a lot of new users with this expanded service.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  That's a very very clever move of them. Last.fm is one very savvy group of people. They've been 'on the ball' right from the get-go and I hope that they continue in the way they've been going.
mikebo 17y ago
I'm not out to knock thesixtyone.com -- my point was just that I don't see a big change in consumer preferences occurring when it comes to music. thesixtyone.com and others might be able to be successful as a niche product, but most consumers are looking to access major label content. Even if every new song from here on out was released in a threesixtyone.com model there is still a lot of demand for older content. That puts music startups in a tricky situation. Either you don't provide access to that mainstream content, provide it legally w/ label deals that hopefully don't cripple your business, or you offer it illegally. According to the wired article the ad supported streams model seems to be dying, which means music subs must be coming back for companies that choose the legal model. I'm personally not excited about this and hope they so do badly labels give ad supported another try.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  I think it is going to be a similar pattern as open source vs closed source, it will take time to get momentum, but I think that in the long term it's going to be unstoppable. As soon as people figure out a way to do a 'redhat' with music it will accelerate a lot. So far most of those efforts have fizzled, but with so many people trying to start fires it is only a matter of time before someone will succeed.