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Comment by frankdenbow | Hacker News Reader

Its funny, everyone says not to do a music startup but there is so much potential there. Maybe I'm crazy to pursue it, but it seems that from history, innovation happens when everyone is looking the other way.

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Seeing the brick wall in front of your face is not looking the other way. However, there is only a brick wall if you want to raise money, want an exit, or care if you get sued. I'm actually not being sarcastic here; there's something to be said for building a law firm in the shape of a music startup.

It is funny, and I do think it reflects a lack of imagination. I attended Startup School yesterday and one of my main goals for the day was to find reasons to invalidate the music-site/service/etc. idea I've been working on for the last couple of years. I couldn't find any, so today I'm putting efforts into not pissing it away and launching it this week (or next).

Depending on who you mean by the "everyone" who is looking the other way, we may be thinking in similar directions.

In what way is everyone looking the other way?

Lots of VCs/investors say not to do anything that touches music, specifically major label content. Dalton's big talk at Startup School is an example of the (reasonable) position against doing music startups. I've heard it from lots of people who I have talked to anecdotally.

There's almost no one doing anything interesting with the creation and distribution and marketing of new music.

It's 2012, and the major labels are still enormously powerful.

I guess I was thinking of all the cool things bandcamp (which I love) and soundcloud are doing for indies, not to mention Spotify, rdio, grooveshark, itunes, amazon music, and google play.

I've been looking at the space and don't really know what I could add. It looks really crowded with innovators to me. If I read you right, you're just saying that there's still room for something better?

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