Everyone Needs To Calm Down | Hacker News Reader

Everyone Needs To Calm Down

techcrunch.com

8 pointsdrm2379 comments

I liked the article (That's a first for me and TC), but one small nit: Payola is only unethical when it is not disclosed. In radio, payola was wrong becaue the radio stations claimed to be playing the most popular music as measured by sales or fan requests or whatever, when in reality they were playing what they were paid to play.

DEMO may be charging $18,500, but they disclose that up front. It may not be to their competitor's taste, but it isn't Payola.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola

"Payola, in the American music industry, is the illegal practice of payment or other inducement by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on music radio, in which the song is presented as being part of the normal day's broadcast. Under US law, 47 U.S.C. § 317, a radio station can play a specific song in exchange for money, but this must be disclosed on the air as being sponsored airtime, and that play of the song should not be counted as a "regular airplay." The term has come to refer to any secret payment made to cast a product in a positive light (such as obtaining positive reviews)."

As a startup founder, paying $18.5K to launch may not be unethical, but it really sucks. That cost just doesn't really take into account the fact that tech startups are so incredibly low cost to create now.

In YC, we created companies for < $15k, with plenty of money to spare. There is no way we would ever spend that much money on a launch.

Though I think in the long run, Arrington/TC has not a whole lot to worry about. It's a pretty obvious value prop -- the smart startups will end up going to the one that matters that is free for startups, and the ones who get rejected will end up at DEMO.

DEMO is subject to the same competitive pressures as startups. Innovate or die.

Agreed.

In our building there's a "modelling agency." Young girls are always going in their with their mothers, and usually coming out a few thousand dollars poorer for their "courses" and their "portfolio." From time to time I hear them talking about "the business" while they chain-smoke outside. I am always reminded of Sean Young's incredible line from Bladerunner: I'm not in the business, Mr. Deckard, I am the business.

If you are paying to demo, if you pay fees to people to find you money, if you pay fees to your investors... you are not in the business, you are the business.

Ironically the one who needs to calm down the most is Arrington himself. I was taken aback at the harshness and drama in his comments.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/07/everyone-needs-to-calm-...

He's a blogger... no scratch that, he's a lawyer turned blogger.

Bloggers by definition are highly opinionated, do you expect anything more?

Seems to me he's just doing his job.

The reply is to an extreme douchebag who deserved that. I think it's a good idea to be firm and shut the trolls up quickly.

Are you talking about Arrington or someone else?

TC50 is not really that transparent and all about loving startups. Bottom line, it's the money. In reality, no one would organize an event that will cause them money. Profit is ultimate driver ( not that it's wrong ), it's perfectly fine but just don't act so benevolous in the process of doing it.

http://www.inquisitr.com/2486/techcrunch50-35-million-x-disi...

I think what Michael & Jason are doing is great for the startups launching at TC50. They're taking all the heat for their PR ways, while the startups will reap the benefits of increased visibility.

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