Basing Your Business Model On Copy Protection Perhaps Not Such A Good Idea
from the making-things-worse-for-consumers-isn't-a-recommended-strategy dept
I have to admit that I never understood the purpose behind Snocap, Shawn Fanning's "second act" after Napster. The idea was that it would help artists sell music... by wrapping it up in DRM. As we pointed out when it launched, any business model based on DRM is doomed from the start. So, just as many bands start rushing to free their music from shackles, it should come as no surprise that Snocap is laying off 60% of its workforce and trying to sell itself. It may find someone out there willing to buy the company, but it's a sucker's bet. The very core of the company's business model is based on limiting what customers can do -- just as bands are figuring out how to provide more value to customers by not limiting them.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: copy protection, drm, music
Companies: snocap
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(Preferably by kicking their collective buttocks in the game of "who can make more profit?")
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!DRM
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Karma Karma Karma...
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Re: Karma Karma Karma...
Besides, as others have commented, the article is a bit misleading.
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Plaxico is right
I thought the basic idea behind snocap was decent... just poorly executed.
The interface, usability and features of their 'mini-stores' sucked. And most artists that I've talked to who used their service said their customer service sucked. Sounds like they were a pain in the ass to deal with as well.
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Writing an Article without doing Research Perhaps
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If Flash and their technologies are not the biggest pervayers of DRM (albeit faux-DRM), I don't know who is.
Now no on calls it DRM, becuase it used to be just crap timeline animations.
But with them pushing into the video world, with their new player, and in particular in the cableTV video world, 99% of all web video, purchased or otherwise, will be in their proprietary "shell" which is the exact same thing as DRM.
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