domp

Yeah I see your point. But having an ugly site isn't going to help you gain popularity.

I agree Myspace is probably not thinking of the design aspects. They're focusing on expanding their product and adding features. But when I look at Virb I think "Wow, this is what Myspace should look like". If Virb becomes a big competitor I guarantee that Myspace will be changing their design very quickly and calling up Eric Meyers.

I don't agree that 'ugly' is what popular sites are trying to do. I just think that it's poor designers. I won't even bother with a site that looks like it was made in the 90s. With a better designed site I have a better chance of going back and using their service.

In my opinion you only have around 10 seconds to make an impression on me with your website. If I see an ugly site I won't even bother looking any further. I'll just click the back button and never go back to your site again.

Virb does look real good. My only worry is that it doesn't offer many features that matter to normal people. The best addition is the button to stop customization. For the majority of myspace users they're not going to care for most of the techie features. They could have some tricks up their sleeves though.

When Purevolume updated their site a while back I was real dissapointed at the lack of additional functions. They just added the social network part into the site. I'd hope that they are taking a more innovative approach to this project and not just trying to compete directly with everything Myspace offers.

Definitely. It was great to read this when I had the beginning stages of a company idea in my head. Made me think of it in a completely different way.

This is a horrible website.

Thanks JMiao. Yeah I was thrown off with his comment too. I guess he was on my side by trying to prove that things cost a lot of money? Although that wasn't my side because if I had a home studio I would never spend 3 grand on a microphone.

Yeah I'm with far33d. To make a "great album" doesn't take that much money. I bet only a small percentage of people could tell the difference between a good basement recording and a real nice studio.

Keep talking? Why are you linking to a 3000 dollar microphone? I don't see how this is relevant in recording cheap or adding to the conversation that we were having. There's a lot more to recording a band than having an expensive microphone.

I really liked "The Tipping Point". Anything by Malcolm Gladwell I would have to recommend.

Yeah I agree. The amount of money is no doubt going down. I mean my brother's studio can make a recording that sounds close to the 50 grand ones by just putting triggers on the drums and doing all these other tricks. Would a big musician pay to record with a 20 yr old? No chance in hell.

I wish I was going to the startup school. It'd be nice though if I was cause I'm sure this conversation would have been much better. I didn't realize it was a free event until it was too late.

I completely realize that. 1000 bucks for an album is not reasonable though. At this point it's around 10 grand for a solid album with an okay producer. That's still a big investment for a small band.

Production costs will never reach zero. It makes no sense. You're always going to have good producers out there, better engineers, a genius mastering person and great studios that people will pay for. Anyone right now could make their own movie with a home camcorder but I'm sure they'd rather go with some professionals.

I don't know much about the film industry so I won't try and touch on that issue. But with music, the content distribution is obviously free on the internet. Production is definitely not. If you're talking about a junk recording than yeah. But any band nowadays who is taking their careers seriously look for a producer, an engineer, and a good studio. These all cost money. And other sources of revenue have been created. Look at ringtones. I just believe that another type of approach to selling music has to be created.

I disagree with his outlook on the music biz. I think that recorded music does have a value. Although there is a small cost to produce it these days every musician dreams of making money off of it. No musician enjoys giving their music up for free. They assume that it'll pay off in the long run(whether that be buying tracks on itunes, getting a cd or a tshirt at their show). Just because the current model for selling music isn't working and piracy is a popular alternative doesn't make music worth nothing.

Also, any band already relies on live concerts for their means of money. This is nothing new. What is happening is that major labels are getting a bigger piece of the pie when it comes to merchandise(which used to go straight to the band). I just think a new means of selling music must be created that benefits all parties.

Yup thats the confusion. Thanks

I'm not gonna lie I watched it a lot tonight. I really would have enjoyed it better if the sound was better though. It was hard to hear the speaker and a lot of the conversations. Wasn't Justin supposed to speak in front of everyone?

I thought about that idea too. I definitely think that one of the 8 Y-Combinator teams should get a person to film the whole experience from start to finish. It seems like everyone on this news feed is dying to see how it all is done.

Thanks for posting this brlewis. I might attend. Do you know if it's free for anyone to just show up?

Although working at a startup will give you the most experience I feel that people mainly go to startup school to hear success stories and be in the company of other entrepreneurs(as well as look for like-minded people to be involved in their project). I'd assume that the majority of the people probably already have a business in the works and are past looking for a co-founder. Correct me if I'm wrong as I've never attended the school myself.

This post says the wrong number of comments. Weird.

Another thing that happens too with this cramming of industries is that all of the legitimate good ideas are blended in with the others. It becomes harder for a business with a great idea to not be compared to every other obvious idea in their market.

Another issue with DRM is that the artists really have no control over if their product has it or not. When they started recalling albums at SonyBMG some artists were unaware that the label had put this protection on their product.

Why not just make your service good to every user instead of focusing on those people you think you need to impress? I think that every user should have the same great experience and not just a handful of hand-picked consumers. If you have a good product I think that'll show through regardless. It seems like if you feel that you need to do this that you probably find huge weaknesses in your product.

I totally agree. The RIAA wants a bigger cut of the internet radio market and don't want to become extinct. I mean it's not going to kill the established ones who can pay it like Pandora or Last.fm. But it will really make the barriers of entry very difficult for new startups trying to take advantage of internet radio. I'd make a guess that the RIAA falls apart in the next 5 years overall all this bs.

I agree. I'm real into the fact that I can see if people responded to any comments I've said without trying to find the post again.

It seems like a decent program. The location threw me off though. I'm not interested in moving to Colorado anytime soon. But I'm pretty sure it's a decent place to start a business even though other locations such as Silicon Valley of Boston would be better.

I apologize if this is a repeat. I should have assumed Guy's whole site is probably somewhere on this news feed.

I found the girlfriend and location issues to be the biggest challenge for submitting. Luckily my partners gf lives close, I can't score a girl and we both live in Massachusetts. Works out perfect!

I loved this article. It covers how a website can start with no clear vision and have the social community direct what it ultimately becomes

They also have a pretty positive outlook on their biggest competitor, Pandora, who they also see as a friend in spreading their products reach.

I totally agree. It makes them sound like they don't know what they're talking about. I also thought it was funny that now they're describing these amazing 'niches' that are being worked on when it's been happening for a real long time.

This looks like a pretty cool device. I'm not sold on that sort of popular recommendation service system like last.fm though. It tends to be great for casual music listeners but I always feel like it recommends me the obvious handful of bands that I already know about.