Founded in 1997 By Micheal Robertson and Greg Flores.
Innitially run under the Z corporation, it was purchased by Vivendi Interactive for $375 million.
MP3.com: A vocal community of musicians and fans
A slick, all-inclusive music site, MP3.com is fueled by an active community of musicians and fans who live to spread the word about music. The site caters to artists looking to promote their material and connect with listeners, and to fans that thrive on discovering new music and expressing their opinions.
The Lineup
Artist-provided content from both independent and major-label acts including customized artists pages with songs, videos, similar-artists lists, photos, bios, news, blogs, and forums.
Fan-generated content such as ratings, reviews, videos, blogs, forums, and favorites lists.
Exclusive coverage, editorial features, and original programming including web shows, artist interviews, concert webcasts, event reports, video album reviews, and more.
Thousands of free MP3s, plus streams of popular music videos and selected new albums.
Artist charts enabling artists to view their daily popularity level and sort by genre and zip code.
Flash audio player providing the ability to create playlists and download files from within the player.
Easy-to-use tech guide with details and advice on the latest digital-music equipment and technology.
Favorite-artist tracking updating fans on new releases, TV appearances, news stories, and more.
Photo gallery featuring thousands of images of today’s hottest artists.
More than six million song clips accompanied by retailer links.
Daily news updates and commentary on major industry headlines.
In 1999, an 18-year-old college dropout named Shawn Fanning changed the music industry forever with his file-sharing program called Napster. His idea was simple: a program that allowed computer users to share and swap files, specifically music, through a centralized file server. His response to the complaints of the difficulty to finding and downloading music over the Net was to stay awake 60 straight hours writing the source code for a program that combined a music-search function with a file-sharing system and, to facilitate communication, instant messaging. Now we have Napster, and people are pissed.
Check out Time magazine's Interview with Shawn Fanning
The Recording Industry Association of America has filed suit against Napster charging them with tributary copyright infringement,which means Napster is being accused not of violating copyright itself but of contributing to and facilitating other people's infringement. However, Napster argues that because the actual files are never in Napster's posession, but transferred from user to user, that Napster is not acting illegally. The issue in P2P applications (Peer to Peer) is that if Napster is guilty of copyright infringement, then the consumers of Napster are guilty too. Likewise, if the consumer are not guilty, then how can Napster be held responsible.
For a different perspective, check out RIAA's website
Now this tiny company of 50 employees in Redwood City, California is up against media empires like Universal, Sony and BMG,plus influential artists Dr. Dre and Metallica. The court battles continue and Napster's future hangs in the balance. Yet somehow, regardless of the outcome in the courtroom, Napster has opened a proverbial window of possibility on the Internet and more companies will spring up over time.
Kazaa.com, Kazaa Media Desktop and Kazaa Plus are products of Sharman Networks. Sharman Networks is a proactive, virtual, global technology and publishing company, focused on delivering peer-to-peer software.
Kazaa is working hard to meet our mission of delivering the best P2P experience in the world.
Meet the Sharman Networks Team
Technology
This team is global, and includes hard-core coders, information architects, testers, web developers, designers, and planners. Their job is to keep the software running at optimum, while constantly reinventing and improving the KMD with new and tweaked features. Phil Morle (Director of Technology)
Doesn't need to sleep and comes up with great new versions of KMD for your delight. New releases are staged like the large theatre spectacles he once directed. The guardian of your privacy, a technical visionary and a man who's word you can take to the bank.
Business Development and Marketing
The guardians of the end-user, these guys work to ensure that the software keeps everyone happy. They listen to user feedback and think about new ways to reach more people.
Alan Morris (Executive Vice President)
Been there, seen it and done it in entertainment, research and computing and got the T-shirt to go with his mountain biking scars. Knows that P2P is where it is going to be and believes that life is there to be lived to the full.
Business Management
The 24x7 team works to keep the rest of us true to the vision and ensure that the complex machine runs as smoothly as possible. They include individuals with deep experience in media, software, publishing and entertainment a perfect mix for the new world of peer-to-peer.
Nikki Hemming (CEO)
Pushed frontiers in entertainment and computer-games for people like Virgin and Sega and snagged an award or two launching market winners around the globe. Thinks that Kazaa Media Desktop is the killer app for the 21st Century and that the only limitations are the ones in your mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment