Wrong. Roxio, a CD-burning software company, snapped up the Napster name and the technical assets of Shawn Fanning's file-sharing startup on the cheap. But sometimes you get what you pay for. Roxio shed its software business and took the Napster name, but never figured out how to profit from it. In the last year, it lost $16.5 million.

And yet Napster managed to live on. If anyone can lay it in the ground once and for all, we're betting it's Best Buy. The retailer has stumbled from one unsuccessful online-music strategy to another, most recently through a partnership with RealNetworks' also-ran music site, Rhapsody. Why doesn't Best Buy just ask Steve Jobs for more iPods to sell? That seems easier.

Previously:

• A is for Adelson, who cofounded Digg
• 
  
• B is for Botha, who sold YouTube big
• 
  

The insular crowd, however, all but ensured I'd meet up with Ghosts of Valleywag Past. No, not a spectral Nick Douglas or a scary Nick Denton — but other people I've read about, or written about. That vaguely familiar girl chatting with Jeremy Stoppelman? Oh! It's his ex-girlfriend Liza, reportedly the center of love triangle involving Valley good-time-guy Sean Parker. There's Steve Chen, the YouTube founder, with spiky hair and glasses, holding hands with his girlfriend while bidding Stoppelman adieu. Over there, by the bar, is Ooma CEO Andrew Frame, wearing a form-fitting leather jacket and sporting bangs. Bangs? Really? And Keith Rabois, the ex-PayPaler now at Slide, with the controversial Stanford history.

Then I met Snocap founder Jordan Mendelson, whose appearance with a bevy of beauties at last year's Yelp party lead us to crown him the Valley's newest bad boy. Boy did we peg him wrong. My first thought, after taking in his supreme untallness, was that he seemed like such a nice guy. And so unassuming. The expression of smug self-satisfaction in last year's pictures was missing. As was, apparently, his job.

I asked about Snocap, the troubled music startup he founded with Shawn Fanning, whom he worked with at Napster. Mendelson confirmed our rumor that he had left for another project. So, was he going to indulge his Valleywag-created persona and party hearty all night? Sadly, no. Mendelson begged off early during the afterparty at Mr. Smith's, in order to prepare for a venture meeting today. The bad boys are growing up — or at least learning when they need to put on appearances.

In a post to CD Baby's blog, Sivers details the costs his company faced dealing with Snocap as a partner.

We had to hire 6 new full-time customer service people just to deal with the thousands of problems. We couldn't fix problems ourselves, only pass them on, because all fixes had to be done by Snocap. A hundred times a day we had to helplessly apologize to our clients.

Every company meeting revolved around Snocap. Every employee had to be trained in the endless FAQ about Snocap. For the last 8 months, the CD Baby office has felt like a Snocap office. All we were doing, all day long, was dealing with Snocap issues.

$12,000 total sales for the 8 months they'd been active. Since we keep a 9% cut, that's $1080 for us, total. Ouch.
As a curiosity, I quietly enabled MP3 sales on cdbaby.com, without telling anyone. A "buy MP3" button showing up next to the "buy CD" button.
In 3 weeks, with no announcements, we sold over $110,000 in downloads. Hm.

Word is that the CEO Rusty Rueff is responsible for getting snocap into this ****ed up situation. It didn't help that the former CTO Dave Rowley made a mess of engineering before he was fired a few months ago (and given time to find a new position so that he could make it look like he "left for better opportunities" but he was fired).

When the relationship broke down, Snocap began sending emails to CD Baby customers, trying to sign them up directly and cut CD Baby out. Other musicians began reporting Snocap stores appearing in their MySpace profiles without approval. Others yet were complaining that Snocap wasn't providing its artists with any payout after five months. Things only got stranger with official statements from the companies.

When the deal fell apart, Snocap acted as if it was at its behest. Said Snocap CEO Rusty Rueff:

These experiences have shown us that Snocap works best when used directly by artists without the extra support of CD Baby. To use or continue using the Snocap MyStore to sell your music on MySpace, you must create a direct account with Snocap.

I'll give a public and detailed account soon. For now, just know that the ending of the relationship between CD Baby and Snocap was our idea, and done for your benefit (as well as our sanity).

rollin thru da Plex in the Escalade
Friday an' this bitch's gettin paid hahahaha HAhahaha
it's ruff the Wag's up in m'grill an
since I dumped Larry, serious illin' huahhahaha huahhahaha
everytime I turn around in this class
Stanford boys peepin my ass
hate doin dis shit ain't doin this shit
gonna see Eric at half past five
look muthafucka at this 45 BOOM
hahaha hahaha hahaha ha ha ha

Matto makes a Napster funny:

I made out with Shawn, but took off when he mentioned the monthly fee.

Blackjack goes for the double whammy:

Does everyone in the Valley talk at speeds that make it seem like Starbucks serves a heaping helping of crystal meth with every latte?

valleyvoyeur re-spins Sergey's rumored rejection at Club Xenii:

I think it's probably a sign of their GOOD character that they get turned down by some chicks, because this means they aren't just going up to one of the billion hot,skanky girls in LA and saying "hey, i'm the [lego/humidifier] boy that started Google, and I have 15 billion dollars.. wanna fuck?"

Hell, that's what I'd do, and I guarantee you it'd work.

Come back next week, when BlackJack goes for a hat trick. You can comment too! Prove you're witty or important at tips@valleywag.com.

Was at this club in the city called Dolce. lo and behold Shawn Fanning rolls in...with hat...of course. Nobody recognizes, which I think dissapoints him, so he sits in the corner by himself and waits. Looking disgruntled. I find one of my single friends and tell her who he is...3 minutes later, they're all over each other. In the corner, on the dance floor, everywhere. He's a terrible dancer....25 minutes later, they leave together...call me the matchmaking muthafucka.

Hey, tipster, you recognized Shawn. And by the end of the night, so did that friend. Maybe he can thank you for a little peer-to-peer action.

Spot someone "famous for the Valley"? Citizen paparazzi are invited to e-mail tips@valleywag.com with one-paragraph stories of techebrity sightings.

Photo: Shawn and Bram [Anil Dash on Flickr]

Craig (you know, Craigslist Craig) just posted the first known photo of Shawn Fanning and Bram Cohen together. As Craig says on his blog, the Napster founder and BitTorrent founder had never met until last night's Wired Rave Awards. Craig captured the historic meeting on his Treo.

"It's funny," said BitTorrent spokeswoman Lily Lin, "because papers would always call and say, 'We're doing a story on Shawn Fanning. What does Bram think of Shawn?' And I told them, 'Well, he's never met Shawn.'"

For the record, Shawn's slimmed down and toned up since we last reported his weight. You should see this guy in a tee — the boy's got BFGs.

Shawn Fanning and Bram Cohen at Wired Rave party [Craig Newmark's blog]

Or maybe it's a Napster fan's curse coming true:

So what was all your talk about supporting Napster in the fight for 'Net freedom??? You are pathetic! I hope you will spend your money from the sale on a whole lot of fat food so you will dye (sic) of a heart attack before reaching 40!!! Shame on you! As if Napster is the only program out there ...

Fanning's weight story — with pics — after the jump.

LA Times, 2000:

"Fun, early on, was going to 24 Hour Fitness at 2 in the morning," Fanning said. "If I could get enough work done during the day, I would reward myself by going to the gym."

SF Chronicle, 2004:

Flickr, 2005:

Napster deal: What now for Internet music? [CNN, 2000]
Banking on Snocap [SF Chronicle]
The Lowdown Download Blues [LA Times via Joseph Menn]
Digital Media Power Panel [Flickr]