Gawker
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justin ouellette
Muxtape creator explains how to be an overnight failure
Justin Ouellette's music trading site Muxtape, shut down after failed talks with the RIAA, the music labels' copyright cops, may not have earned him a fortune. But it has secured him a modicum of infamy. He got invited to speak earlier this week at the WebbyConnect Summit in Laguna Niguel, explaining to others on how to replicate his overnight success with making a website deeply popular with Brooklyn's most outspoken Internet users. As Ouellette elaborates in this interview, the key is to just make up something that people want. Guess what? Just because people want free music doesn't mean you can give it to them. Ouellette never figured that part out.
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Comment by Ted Dziuba: You know what else everybody wants? Money. I have a startup idea: we print money. Anyone want... 2 Responses | Other threads
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digital music
MySpace Music — like Muxtape, except people who wear deodorant will use it
MySpace Music, a joint venture between the News Corp. social network and music labels Universal, Sony and Warner,finally launches next week, says Fortune, though it still won't have a CEO. MySpace users will be able to listen to and organize playlists full of songs from all three music labels for free. (EMI is the lone holdout, which means no coldplay.) Playlists will include affiliate links to Amazon.com's MP3 store. MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe says ad revenues and song kickbacks are going to save the music industry, replacing lost CD sales. More »
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Comment by socialmediamojo: Funny how the imeem reference got cut off there.... I'm pretty much expecting myspace music to be a clone of imeem... more » | Other threads
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Cute Startup Alert
Tumbltape = Tumblr + Muxtape - Jakob Lodwick
It's not quite a startup, is it, but it's cute anyway: Tumbltape. Why open an account at a site like Muxtape that's going to get shut down for exceeding their bandwidth costs or getting in trouble with the RIAA or having even the vaguest association with trouble-prone entrepreneur Jakob Lodwick? Tumbltape makes a playlist from the songs you've already uploaded to your Tumblr blog. The site was made by Adam Gotterer and John Zanussi (in the hoodie, left), both of Connected Ventures — Lodwick's former stomping ground. Those MP3s aren't going to play themselves, so get to it. (Photo via The Daily Zanoose, a Tumblr devoted to photos of nothing but John Zanussi) -
copyfight
Is Opentape a jab at the RIAA?
Following the shutdown of Muxtape, a site for posting online mixtapes, in a dispute with the music industry, someone has launched Opentape.fm, where you can download code to easily create your own Muxtape-like online mixtapes of MP3 files. And if the creators of Muxtape aren't directly responsible, they probably fed Opentape's developers everything they would need. The first clue is that the site is powered by the favored online publishing platform of millennial hipsters, Tumblr. Another clue is that the domain registration information points to 152 W. 57th Street in Manhattan, which just happens to be IAC CEO Barry Diller's address (Justin Ouellette, Muxtape's founder, worked at IAC site Vimeo). Then there are two small hints in the code: More »
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By Jackson WestComment by FaceMelter: This package communicates with the internet via cURL and sends information that identifies the host website. How funny would... 1 Responses | Other threads
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great moments in journalism
Shuttered Muxtape included on PC Magazine's list of top "undiscovered" sites
PC Magazine includes Muxtape in its latest listicle, the "Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites," even though the RIAA's already "discovered" it, triggering a shutdown. Poor Kyle Monson, the writer of the piece — those cushy, weeks-long magazine lead times from when a piece is submitted to when it's published do have their downsides.
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By Jackson WestComment by kmonson: Weeks-long lead time? Try months long. In fact, I wrote this comment back in June. It's just how we work... more » | Other threads
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commenter of the day
pepelicious
Hipsters must be quite sad that Muxtape is down but we have RIAA to blame. Today's featured commenter, pepelicious knows the other problem with Muxtape though: More »
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Comment by WilliamMarkFelt: @spyUh wow, well you're in luck. At Borders just the other day, I saw just that very thing, right... more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
Muxtape's spending real cause of music site's shutdown
Muxtape founder Justin Ouellette says he's shut down the mixtape-hosting website because of a problem with the Recording Industry Association of America. A statement from the RIAA itself seems to confirm the story. Bu we hear another reason Muxtape is shutting down is that it got too expensive for Ouellette to keep up. More »
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Comment by socialmediamojo: This makes complete sense, I mean we all know the RIAA is pissed but sites don't shut down until public... more » | Other threads
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copyfight
RIAA "problem" shutters online-music startup Muxtape
Muxtape, a New York-based online-music startup much favored by the Tumblr set, has shut down its website, citing a "problem" with the RIAA, a music-industry organization which polices copyright. Could it have anything to do with the ease with which users can download music files from the site, despite founder Justin Ouellette's efforts to block them? The company blog elaborates, barely: "No artists or labels have complained. The site is not closed indefinitely. Stay tuned."
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By Owen ThomasComment by cooterpunch2: Where am I going to get my electro-wave dance party on now??? [farm4.static.flickr.com] more » | Other threads
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copyfight
Muxtape creator battles Firefox script kiddies while waiting for the RIAA
Justin Ouellette's Muxtape, a site which hosts online mixtapes, is on shaky legal ground — and not just over the way Ouellette left his former employer, IAC-owned video site Vimeo. Making a mixtape for personal use is clearly accepted; but posting it online, for everyone on the Internet to listen to? Unclear at best. Ouellette himself has hinted that he's worried about being sued. On Userscripts.org, a site where people post and discuss add-ons to the Firefox Web browser, Ouellette has been scolding programmers for creating tools that let Muxtape users download MP3 files directly from the site — even as he was claiming that he wasn't worried about copyright issues. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by ans: Wait... what was that?... did I just hear the sound of 2,000 ruby coders canceling their muxtape variants and returning... more » | Other threads
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Andrew Pile
New Vimeo boss mocks Jakob Lodwick's pet wantrepreneur
On Monday, we posted Muxtape founder Justin Ouellette's accidentally-emailed-to-the-Internet photo of a napkin on which he'd scribbled details of his investment deal with Jakob Lodwick. Lodwick, best known for getting fired from Vimeo, an online video-sharing site he founded, now owned by IAC. He now spends his days playing the solipsistic teenager in a man's Crocs-shod body. Now Lodwick's replacement at Vimeo, director of development Andrew Pile, joins the fun. More »
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Comment by jadedperson: @dalasv: hey, let's rent cars to people who need them! And make it really cool and convenient! But let's steal... more » | Other threads
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justin
Music-startup founder leaked damning deal memo by confusing email with Tumblr
Yesterday, we asked why Justin Ouellette, the founder of Brooklyn's favorite music-sharing site, Muxtape, would post the terms of Jakob Lodwick's investment in Muxtape to his personal blog — especially when those terms might prove dangerous for Ouelette's friend Lodwick, an oddly charismatic tech entrepreneur who had a frosty falling out with IAC chief Barry Diller? The answer: Because even for the founder of a Web service that's grown to 140,000 users in just 5 months, sometimes email is hard. Writes Ouellette in a post replacing the now removed image: More »
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Comment by innocentchild: If I ever have to cross paths with that chode sucker I'm first going to laugh and point. Then I'm... more » | Other threads
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confirmed
Napkin shows New York ubergeek Jakob Lodwick encouraged IAC employee to two-time Barry Diller
Once an oversharer, always an oversharer — no matter what it costs, personally or financially. When IAC fired Jakob Lodwick — the Internet's own Howard Roark — from Web video site Vimeo, IAC agreed to pay Lodwick $100,000 a year until 2011, just so long as he stayed away from IAC employees in any new ventures. Lodwick, reportedly bipolar and never much one for consistency, has proven unable to resist the temptation. An image posted to former IAC employee Justin Ouellette's personal blog seems to confirm what's already been rumored: Lodwick funded Ouellette's side project, an online-music site called Muxtape, with enough cash — $95,000 in exchange for 1 percent of Muxtape's equity, going by the scribbled napkin — so that Oullette could quit IAC to run Muxtape full time. More »
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Comment by FiveStarEggRoll: Did somebody e-mail this to IAC? Harry "juicy" Wang more » | Other threads
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exits
Jakob Lodwick too good for the Internet, leaves it to you animals
It's hard out there for an Objectivist. At least, that's according to Normative founder Jakob Lodwick, who cites his mama when deciding that we're all just too negative to appreciate the risk-taking, innovative soul behind Vimeo and (too a much more secretive extent) Muxtape. You animals have scared him away from the Internet with your snide comments and ad hominem insults! Never mind that markets, like emotional states, tend to be volatile — if your will is positive enough, you can conquer all, promise! At least, that's the theory. Lodwick has decided to stop trying to live up to it and will cease to publish anything but positivity online, presumably with comments disabled. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by koalasthewise: What is wrong with all of you? Why are you all such jerks? Seriously... more » | Other threads
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breakdowns
Muxtape hacked, causing emo indie types to weep more than usual
Reports came in over the last hour that Muxtape was hacked, and the online-music startup has confirmed the news on its blog.This afternoon, someone gained access to our server and caused some problems. We are investigating and will have more information soon.
All the various mixes played one song and one song only — noodly downtempo chillout "Good Disease" by Aim. Could a sufficiently emo Connected Ventures engineer ticked at Muxtape backer Jakob Lodwick's poaching of Justin Ouellette have decided to take matters into his own hands?
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By Jackson WestComment by raincoaster: Caused how many emo indie types to weep? All the ones I know are over at nin.com remixing at will. more » | Other threads
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journalist math
Founder of music startup Muxtape learns art of obfuscation from his master
Interviewing Muxtape's Justin Ouellette for Listening Post, Eliot Van Buskirk asked "How many users are there at this point? How many muxtapes?" Ouellette's response — "more than the population of Germany, less than the population of Japan" — puts the number between 82 million and 127 million users. Compete.com puts the number around 52,000. Ouellete might have been joking, but Van Buskirk published the numbers without comment. And remember, with Ouellete and his Muxtape partner Jakob Lodwick, whom Barry Diller fired from his post as founder of online-video site Vimeo, you can't judge what's actually going on based on what they say. More »
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Comment by raincoaster: I think the real question is, does ANYONE pay the bills at Muxtape? more » | Other threads
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exits
Barry Diller is paying Jakob Lodwick more than $100,000 a year to stay away from IAC employees
We heard Jakob Lodwick may have broken his severance agreement with IAC's Connected Ventures when he poached Vimeo Web designer Justin Ouellette to help him start Muxtape, an online mix-tapes startup. How much could the gaffe cost the Connected Ventures cofounder? Reportedly, $100,000 a year through 2011. "What a mess," an IAC exec tells us. True, but mostly for Lodwick. IAC can hire more Web designers to replace the one Lodwick's entrepreneurial ventures have cost them so far. Diller's six-figure dole will be harder for Lodwick to replace.
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Comment by MATIC: It's actually a bit annoying because all the other college humor guys are cool and smart. Too bad this one... more » | Other threads
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exits
Lodwick's Muxtape mess
Jakob Lodwick, the fired founder of Vimeo who's now dabbling in online music, rushed out an announcement of his involvement with Muxtape, an online mix-tapes startup — shortly after we started asking questions. But in his attempt to spoil our scoop, Lodwick may have put the payout he got from Vimeo's parent company, IAC, at risk. We're told that part of Lodwick's severance package included a fairly typical agreement to not poach any of his former Connected Venture colleagues for future projects. But with Muxtape, that's just what Lodwick's done. More »
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Comment by michaellamb: @matto, i'm just jealous man....Lots of great geeks out there. A much longer list than the ones who regularly get... more » | Other threads
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mareen fischinger
Lodwick's latest flame pitches Muxtape for him
Meet Mareen Fischinger, a photographer from Düsseldorf, Germany, according to her Tumblr blog. "I don't know anything about her," a source tells us, "Just that Jakob [Lodwick] is [redacted] her." We have a little more to add to the scoop. Besides her obvious eye for photography, Fischinger shares her boyfriend's talent for pitching Muxtape without disclosing his relationship to the company.
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Comment by michaellamb: that glasses guy is all over her portfolio, doesn't he ever smile, or is that not emo enough more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
Is Jakob Lodwick the moneyman behind Muxtape?
Jakob Lodwick now admits he's involved with Justin Ouellette's Muxtape. What the Connected Ventures cofounder, ousted from his job at the IAC-backed venture by Barry Diller, doesn't disclose: a financial stake in Ouellette's online mix-tapes project. We hear it's more than plausible Lodwick is an early investor in the startup. Lodwick has already shown a willingness to invest in projects he admires, such as David Karp's Tumblr. Before publicly disclosing his employ with Muxtape, we asked Lodwick to explain his connection to Muxtape. In an email, Lodwick changed the subject to fantasies of his personal life. More »
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Comment by vulturesquadron: @KingHater: Sorry, but it won't happen that way. Under the DMCA, if you are a service provider qualified for... more » | Other threads
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web 2.0
Simple is the new complicated for hipster Web apps
It's starting to feel like 1988 around here, and not just because Rick Astley is back in the news. No, it's because old analog-like tech is making a virtual comeback online. Muxtape, the latest project from Vimeo's Justin Ouellette, allows aging alt-rockers and hip-hoppers to create mix tapes for their crushes like we used to with cassettes. And that's just one example. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by matto: Look out! Jason Calcanis is standing outside, in your lawn, with a boombox playing a Peter Gabriel tape right now! more » | Other threads
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