Snocaps New Tune
An article in Business 2.0 about Snocap, Napster innovator Shawn Fanning’s new company … Snocap is a one-stop shop for rights management across multiple online retailers … The system is designed to be a neutral middleman between the labels and the P2P networks.
Labels would register their catalogs with Snocap, using its central database as a platform for managing the distribution of their content, setting licensing and copy protection terms. The file-sharing services Snocap signs up, in turn, would use its software to identify tracks when they’re being traded, check them against the database to see if they’re registered and authorized for sale, and charge for them accordingly. Snocap would earn its keep by taking a cut of the ensuing revenue.
Snocaps aim is
“not to sell tunes directly to consumers but to create a central global clearinghouse for digital music — a back-end system equipped with technology to monitor, authorize, and monetize the swapping of copyrighted tracks … hopes to seed an array of new P2P services that will provide the deep libraries people have gotten used to, but where rights-holders are respected.”
Deep libraries, hmm, yes, think of the long tail … where the future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets
Fanning compares the difference in the numbers between iTunes and P2P …
“it took Apple more than a year to sell 100 million downloads which is the number traded through free P2P systems every three or four days….It’s undeniable where the industry has to go if it wants to continue to grow the market.”
… although difficulties remain:
The trickier task for Snocap will be persuading P2P services to join. Some are philosophically opposed to any form of centralization. Others fear that any decrease in the selection of songs they make available will cause users to hit the road. And others, of course, believe that any business model other than “free” will be a kiss of death.
