Deal Radar 2009: Sheet Music Plus

I have talked at length about the potential for Web 3.0. Today, we will look at a company that is doing well as a web 1.0 company, but can take its business a great deal further if it applied web 3.0 principles. SheetMusicPlus.com, located in Emeryville, CA, is the world’s largest online retailer of sheet

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Deal Radar 2008: Pandora

Pandora Media, based in Oakland, California, is an Internet radio web site. Founded by Tim Westergren in 2000, it was formerly known as Savage Beast Technologies. Pandora uses the Music Genome Project, a collection of songs that have been analyzed by trained musicians.

Deal Radar 2008: Amie Street and the Twenty First Century Renaissance

AmieStreet.com is an online music destination that allows (a) musicians to release, (b) music fans to discover, and (c) listeners decide the price they would like to pay for new and independent music over the Internet. The site has excellent music. In August 2007, Amie Street raised an undisclosed amount of Series A round of

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Music, Online and Off

You have read our coverage of Web 3.0 and Online Music. Here is a good article from the Economist, The slow death of digital rights, on the online music industry and the repercussions of removing DRM. Meanwhile, I still am an old fashioned enthusiast for live music, and on Wednesday, we went to Yoshi’s to

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Web 3.0 and Verticalization

I have worked with the Web 3.0 framework for months now, and taken a crack at defining how the web is likely to evolve in the future. So here’s a recap of the thesis so far. I will be adding a dimension to this framework shortly, so it is a good time to stop and

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MTV CTO Articulates CDN Open Problems

As we discuss Web 3.0 and Online Music, I have also been pondering some of the issues that large media companies are facing today. I had an interesting chat with Nick Rockwell, CTO of MTV Networks, focusing on MTVN’s digital businesses, including some of the internet’s most popular and recognizable brands: MTV.com, VH1.com, Nick.com, and

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Online Music & Web 3.0 (Part 5)

M&A and VC activity In May 2007, CBS Corp. acquired Last.fm, a UK-based music community site that allows fans with similar tastes to connect, for $280 Million, in a bid to attract young audiences. Napster acquired AOL Music’s subscription service for $15 million in cash in January 2007. The acquisition gave Napster 350,000 subscribers of

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Online Music & Web 3.0 (Part 4)

Web 3.0 formula discussion (4C, P, VS) Here, we will take a look at the Web 3.0 aspects of online music sites. Context Within the broad Context of Music, users may come to music portals with a varied set of intents. From shopping for new music, to expanding the collection of a favorite musician’s work,

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