Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

It's p-to-p plus applications, stupid

Author:Russell Lipton
Posted:9/12/2000; 4:48:14 PM
Topic:It's p-to-p plus applications, stupid
Msg #:21270
Prev/Next:21269 / 21271

(with apologies to James Carville and cf Dave's pointer to news.com article).

Let's grant that raw file sharing makes for an uninteresting biz model. Big deal journalism - not. As if Napster or its VCs ever believed that themselves.

But enough of Napster.

Radio Userland starts with the necessary p-to-p precondition (access to shared files or, more precisely in this case, shared playlists, weblogs, email and chat from distributed servers - let's leave mp3s as an undefined issue) and enables users to add "intelligence" to the files.

Perhaps this is an element (the element?) of what Dave implies by P = people ....

or

P = People = Value-Add(Intelligence)

Let's grant the possibility that there ain't money in intelligence. As Dave has pointed out, the curious way that the Web frustrates classic money-making schemes isn't necessary a bad thing.

Minimally, applications, even in the simple form of enriched players that augment free players, can be sold.

Editing tools can be sold. Programming environments can be sold. Web servers can be sold. Radio Userland, therefore, can be sold.

As for the bigger fish:

If, no when, the Web converges on a model for distributing music (whether classic, heavy-handed watermarking, tips or ?), Radio Userland will be ready to play because it is agnostic on that side of the revenue model.

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