Mixwit (YC W08) shuts down | Hacker News Reader

Mixwit (YC W08) shuts down

blog.mixwit.com

48 pointsALee30 comments

On another software making discussion forum I participate in, we have a saying: don't write software for people who don't pay money for software. I hope I'm not being totally uncouth in suggesting that variants of this remain good advice.

What is this other forum? Sounds promising.

The Joel on Software Business of Software forums. http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/?biz

Its mostly people with small* businesses selling B2C and/or B2B downloadable software, with some contractors and web app folks mixed in.

* For many definitions of "small", including "Oh heck I want to be small like he is small".

That would've been really bad advice for some people. There is a lot of successful B2C software out there.

Devil's Advocate: iTunes made it compelling to buy a 99 cent track instead of downloading it for free. Surely there must be something to it?

It wouldn't have worked if iTunes also let you download the music for free.

True but a bit torrent client + google means that song is just a few clicks away.

what are these pop-ups? where do i get a bitter rent client ? i type in the google my songs, but i get all these pages.. how do i download from google with the bitter rent client? okay, okay, i did what you told me. now, it says downloaded. where did it go? i have a downloads folder? i dont want it on my desktop so i deleted it. how do i get it on my ipod?

also, it is much faster / more convenient and reliable.

Agreed. I don't know if you can find it online anywhere, but Steve Jobs's pitch for exactly this argument was put together quite well.

OK, torrent client + thepiratebay/mininova/etc. I've never really had any problems with finding what I need, assuming it existed. It would seem some people do, though.

I guess I also have to put myself in the mindset of 2001/2002. Nowadays, I see less compelling reasons for iTunes over bittorrent.

Nobody has to pay for B2C software directly as long as it is monetizeable. Charging users directly isn't the only way to make money.

In this case the music industry reduces the possible monetization options and limits prospects even further with threats of lawsuits. That is what the issue is here.

"... We’re very sorry that this has to end. We’re going to try to figure out some way to archive the artwork and playlists, if for nothing at least historic value ..."

Try IA ~ http://www.archive.org/donate who are always interested in archiving interesting stuff.

"Until then, enjoy the holidays and please take good care of yourselves, your families, and your friends =)"

Is that last part about taking care of your friends a hint at what caused them to shut down? The wording and strange order seems to suggest it, no?

It's not about that.

They started out "between a rock and a hard place". I'd say thats probably the primary reason.

This is unfortunate as I hadn't heard of mixwit until just now.

Actually it says "between rock and a hard place." I think the missing a is significant. Especially because they italicized "rock."

starts inserting random grammar errors and italics in posts and comments to invite intrigue

yes, it is funny.

Will be interesting to see what the founders will come up with next... "We’ll return early next year with a new company and new toys."

So would the creators advise against creating a music service that uses Seeqpod (or something similar), which operates in a grey legal area?

Seeqpod is a really great service, but it's high on the music labels' neg radar. It really depends on your long term goals. It was one of many factors in our decision.

Correction: Mixwit was Spring 08. [correction again, I was right initially- stupid techcrunch post threw me]

Nope, they were winter. (I was in the same round with them.)

there are lots of vague statements here. Would have like to know what their "rock and a hard place" looked like? what the primary challenges where? and what they've learned for next time? never easy to talk about failures but hugely valuable for the founder and this community.

Bummer. The music industry is a tough nut to crack. I don't know anyone who's really ever made tons of money on a startup there; tons of legal bullshit. Anyone know if Napster ever did well? I think Shawn Fanning only ever made money on Snocap.

Don't you think companies that do face the legal bullshit are already successful?

The music market is simply huge, and there have been many successes. There are plenty for music marketplaces, for instance, and while the largest ones are part of big companies who have more leverage to negotiate with the record industry, there are lots of smaller ones out there that seem to be doing fine, like amie street.

The original Napster wasn't successful as a business, but it completely changed the way people thought about music distribution on the internet. Some of the core napster employees went on to create imeem, which seems to be doing great.

There have been a few great exits - last.fm, broadcast.com, and winamp come to mind, and I'm sure there are plenty of less publicized ones.

Napster 2.0 bombed as well. They were starting to gain some momentum with universities for a moment there (my alma mater had a free trial for a semester) but there were too many restrictions on the music and they could not compete with the (sometimes illegal) alternatives.

Hopefully they'll give away the source code.

IANAL and I am not a founder but I thought the source code basically disappears into a black hole, from a reuse/release perspective. You can't use it. That's what happened with a friend's startup that didn't work out.

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