Roundup: Andreessen’s tips, Revver’s shakeup, Xing’s move, Yigg.de and much more
Here’s the (updated) latest action:
Marc Andreessen getting taste of what it’s like to be a blogger – The Netscape co-founder launched a blog last week. The NYT ran a story about one of his earliest posts. Then he did a good piece about how to hire. And now all the attention has him racing out more posts, including a three part series on The truth about venture capitalists, all very good reads (here, here and… Continue Reading
CBS buys music recommendation service Last.fm for $280M
Updated
CBS has bought music recommendation website Last.fm for $280 million, the extremely popular London-based company that lets users search for and listen to music based on their past preferences and recommendations of other users.
Last.fm says it has around 20 million active users each month, four million of which are in the US. The purchase comes at a time when services such as Last.fm are growing extremely quickly. Other private competitors showing growth are Pandora and… Continue Reading
Pandora goes mobile
Internet radio site Pandora announced tonight the launch of a new service for mobile phones, finally taking the popular music site beyond its core internet audience.
Pandora’s site is a favorite among music lovers: It lets you discover new music based on your tastes and create custom playlists. However, until now, it hadn’t offered a decent mobile service — which raised questions about how it plans to maintain its edge, given the emergence of the Apple… Continue Reading
Web tends toward radical openness, as Digg.com, Pandora show
It has been two days since the controversy began at Digg.com, when users started submitting stories to the news site containing the HD DVD encryption key. If there’s one lesson learned, it’s that the Web tends toward radical openness, and that aggressive censorship is futile. A related story may unfold at music site Pandora, which we’ll get to shortly.
Here’s what happened: After Digg.com received a cease-and-desist letter from the group of companies that use the… Continue Reading
Slacker, the real iPod killer?
Slacker is an ambitious new music service created by some industry veterans that takes aim at the iPod.
Slacker is a music player device, but it is also a music delivery service. It is path-breaking because it wants to let you take it anywhere: It will be the first service to use satellite to deliver music constantly to your device.
Slacker’s service is essentially a personalized Internet radio station, similar to popular services Last.fm and Pandora.
On… Continue Reading
Moritz’s favorites, Google in SF, nano fears, Flock, Pandora & more
Roundup of Silicon Valley news:
Google’s Larry and Sergey were more interested in technology than Yahoo founders — There’s a revealing 2000 interview with venture capitalist Michael Moritz posted by PodVentureZone, comparing Google’s co-founders and Yahoo’s. He was an investor and on the board of both, and says Larry and Sergey were closer “to the sheet metal, closer to the hardware.” He calls Sergey a “tough, little guy”:
I think Larry and Sergey have a much more pronounced… Continue Reading
Slim Devices, a come-out-of-nowhere hit
The NYTs’ Pogue runs a story singing the high praises of the Squeezebox, a product from Slim Devices which lets you play your computer’s music anywhere in the house.
This is an intriguing company, based in Mountain View.
Beginning next week, the Squeezebox will do something no other hi-fi component can do: it will hook into Pandora… a sophisticated music-recommendation site. You name a band, singer or song that you like. Immediately, you hear a new “radio… Continue Reading