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davidjennings's Archive on Apr 22, 2008
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I feel sorry for Gerd that he's having to throw in the towel due to licensing issues. At the same time, he knew better than most what he was going up against and evidently failed to convince the rights holders of his vision.
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We therefore had to realize that a company that wants to provide interactive streaming music services must either a) risk the constant complaints of their users, due to the lack of hit content b) proceed to use any and all music (this is routinely done by allowing users to upload their own MP3s) without the required licenses, and therefore be at the total mercy of the record labels at some point in time, and c) build a huge audience very quickly, based on having the content available - permission or not -, and then very quickly sell themselves to a large company that will take care of placating the labels while the money is plenty and the pockets are deep.