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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Friday, February 04, 2005

MP3.com Founder Details Launch of MP3Tunes.com

TechWeb:

Like his original music site MP3.com launched in 1997, Robertson's latest creation, which he is funding with his own money, will offer music in MP3 format, without copyright-protection technology. For the consumer, that means the music can be played on any device that supports the standard and can be copied on an unlimited number of CDs.

Under those conditions, it's not surprising that none of the major record labels have licensed their music to Robertson. Instead, he has built a catalog of 200,000 tracks licensed from small labels and independent artists.

Robertson believes consumers are getting a raw deal with Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes music store ... Songs from iTunes only play on Apple's iPod music player, while the other services' music play only on hardware supporting Microsoft's technology.

"Our message to consumers is, if you pay for music, you should be able to copy it to any device that you want," Robertson said. "There's a paradox today that if you steal your (MP3) music from file-sharing sites, then you can use it anyway you want. But if you pay for the music, then you get it with all kinds of restrictions and limitations.

"That has to turn around to really energize consumers."

Perhaps.

Arguably, iTunes and the iPod have already energized consumers. More important, music fans as a group -- that is, the general audience of people who buy music -- are not interested in unknown artists from small and independent labels. I'm not saying that music can't be good, I'm just saying no one, in general, cares about it.

I'm not sure what Robertson's deal is. He's sort of like a serial entrepreneur, able to think up new companies at the drop of the hat, but unable to make any of them successful. This latest gig is just silly, the type of thing rich people do when they're bored.

[ Posted at 9:26 AM | Permalink ]