A VC - Latest Comments in The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

Danielle — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:28:27 -0000

hello.
my name is danielle mcgrath ,
and im inlove with nick jonas <33

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

laptapos — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:34:34 -0000

Isn't it an old idea? Hype machine is a ranking system right? Ranks the most talked-about on the music industry... But if they make it users friendly and more useful.. More people might use it.. :)

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

fredwilson — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:27:22 -0000

That¹s for sure!

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

fascinated — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:18:16 -0000

We are constantly working to make the set of blogs we monitor more diverse, but there is a pretty distinct demographic bias even in the people who start blogs, so at a certain point we can only do so much.

The lack of ability to listen by genre is intentional. We want you to listen to things outside of your comfort zone. Yes, it is more abrasive than Pandora, but it's worth it.

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

fascinated — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:12:12 -0000

I think this was due to an issue specifically with searching the Amazon MP3 store. With other stores such as iTunes and eMusic we match as closely as possible, except that it's not always possible :)

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

fascinated — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:09:58 -0000

You are correct here, our streaming radio station is operated via SoundExchange & etc societies.

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

fascinated — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:09:17 -0000

We've been debating the iPhone app idea as well (though we will do it v.soon). There are some issues with usage on that platform that have been turning us off:

a) Anything potentially audio-related may compete with iTunes
b) Streaming over 3G eats your battery alive
c) Lack of background support may render certain things impractical
d) Esoteric development process. Is it really worth $20-40k to hire a dev to build this, given a) b) and c) and then have a limited audience use this?

The Android is a cool platform but the phones so far have been missing headphones jacks (I just couldn't believe that actually happened!) and have not moved that many units. Likely some of the iPhone issues, in particular b) still apply here too.

We aren't totally against it though, so perhaps we should discuss more.

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

fascinated — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:58:11 -0000

We are thinking about FB Connect.

If we can determine that they are not data-predators in our use case, we'll be happy to integrate. This is something that's often overlooked in all the excitement about their new service. For comments, it may work splendidly, but if you are looking to cultivate a relationship with your audience, it may not be the case.

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

DanInCambridge — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:17:42 -0000

I emailed Anthony nearly a year ago asking if I could develop a hypemachine app for the Android platform (this was when it was just a emulator, no phone). He wasn't interested in exposing the hosted music which was a bummer.

And now they plan to develop an app for the iPhone, ugh.

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

kenberger — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:47:18 -0000

Biggest difference (between RS and HM) is that Anthony is soooo not Jann Wenner.

(a compliment to Anthony)

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

neil roseman — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:11:01 -0000

I do hope hypem isn't the RS of our time, particularly as regards music -- that would mean Hype Machine had already outlived it's usefulness. By the early 70's RS wasn't a place to discover new music - they didn't even review "Space Oddity" for example. Maybe they defined the culture if you lived in the Bay Area in 67-68 but that was 40 years ago. This only got worse as time went on.

I do love Hype Machine, but like many say, it's not very good outside of a few categories -- and it's not about "new" versus "old" stuff. It more reflects what is already popular in the current music culture. To that extent, things like hypem (and last.fm) reflect rather than define the music culture.

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

olivier rosset — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:45:35 -0000

U r more than welcome Fred !

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

Fan — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:32:46 -0000

Anthony's not being completely honest with you. Yes, their one Hype Machine radio station is SoundExchange compliant, but they don't pay any royalties on the vast majority of music they are streaming on the site itself. It's pretty disingenuous to pretend that Hype Machine doesn't do anything except piggyback on other people's infringement. Whether that is right or wrong is up for debate (I personally believe that we need to institute some sort of compulsory license so that people like Anthony can build sites like Hype Machine without worry), but right now what he's doing is illegal.

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

alphanaliste — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:19:46 -0000

Okay, I give up. :)

I love it also. But he's not paying royalties on his main site, he's not asking artists for permission (no matter how wonderful you and I think it is for them), and he will get sued.

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

Olivier Rosset — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:16:23 -0000

i am a music business affair working with most of the artists and labels hitting hypemachine most popular page. >HM is dope for promo and .. maybe they pay somebody... but not the right holds for sure.
most of the popular indie blogs, labels and artists (justice, bloc party, chromeo,subpop, jagjaguare, world circuits,defjux, warp, domino ...) are starting to use fairtilizer.com: soundcloud features meets hypemachine meets tubemogul distribution and datas ...plus wolrdwide perfomance agreement deal, and probably the best A&R traction right now. content owner generated is the key for new music start ups. thats why myspace made it in the first place.

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

alphanaliste — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:06:02 -0000

Respectfully, Fred, HyepM can't even match from a recommended song on its site to a specific Amazon.com MP3 file.

Look, for example, at the post on the front page touting Neil Young's awesome song, "Don't Be Denied." Anthony's Amazon link goes to a 'dumb' search result on Amazon which doesn't even list that song on its first 24 results.

Incidentally, I love HypeM also. Love!

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

fredwilson — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:35:13 -0000

Olivier - you run Fairtilizer, right?

Can I use it to post music to my blog?

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

fredwilson — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:31:15 -0000

He hasn't yet

And he's been operating hypem for going on three years now

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

fredwilson — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:10:26 -0000

I've never had that problem

I bought two albums today from hypem links

Devotchka on amazon mp3
Beach House on emusic

Both links worked perfectly

I can tell you that I buy more music from hypem links than any other source by a factor of 5-10

It's an amazing way for musicians to reach new fans and sell their music

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

fredwilson — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:22:17 -0000

Anthony told me they pay them. I believe him.

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

alphanaliste — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:59:34 -0000

Hype Machine pays radio royalties?!?!? Since when? And how? They don't even normalize the data -- how would they know who to pay??!?!

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

vruz — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:16:18 -0000

I love how Songbird integrates with Hype Machine and music blogs in general.
They're not only great music observers, they're getting brilliant businesswise as well.

Can they scale ? Does everything good have to scale ?
Can they stay afloat doing this for years with minimal private investment ?

Whatever makes them happy will make their public happy.
I think they're a good model for a different breed of web startup.

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

fredwilson — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:12:19 -0000

They pay internet radio royalties on their streams

And they are generating fans like radio used to do in the old days

And they also sell a lot of music through links to amazon, emusic, and
itunes

I guess you could take the position you should get asked permission before
someone tells people how great your music is

But I think that¹s pretty old school thinking

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

alphanaliste — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:44:13 -0000

Rolling Stone was counter-cultural, but not actually based on stealing -- sorry, I mean, borrowing without asking -- intellectual property. Hype Machine sure is.

Here's how it works:

1. I'm a musician. I sign a deal with a label. (Yay!)
2. My record is done. My label releases my music. (Yay!)
3. A music blogger likes my record (Yay!), rips it, and posts it on his blog without permission or compensation. (Oh, no!)
4. Hype Machine aggregates that blogger's feed, along with the link to my 'borrowed' music. (Gulp.)
5. Lots of people listen to that 'borrowed' track, favorite it, etc., instead of going to iTunes or even my MySpace site. (Sigh.)

But I guess Hype Machine is pretty awesome. I'm sure I can make enough money from touring and selling t-shirts; just wish they would have asked.

Re: The Rolling Stone Of Our Time

Dan Blank — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:27:10 -0000

Jason - I love Hype machine, but have to agree with you on these points. I use Hype Machine, am amazed by it, and feel it delivers value to me that few other services due. But it is still in its infancy. This is not a failing of Hype Machine, just an admission that our media and communication habits still have a ways to evolve. And I have to say, I am looking forward to it!

Thanks, have a nice evening.
-Dan