CORRECTION
I was re-reading my post from yesterday and realized that I had misspoken regarding one of the things that I had learned. I mistakenly said that I had learned never to announce launch dates. In fact, it’s a golden rule to never announce them---it wasn't something that I had to learn per se. The truth is that you never know when you're going to launch until you're actually ready to do so. Typically there are a couple of beta phases that a service must go through in order to make sure that you can successfully launch--testing stress loads, bandwidth, etc. So anyone in this business knows that you just don't announce launch dates until you're absolutely sure that you will have as smooth a launch as possible.
In response to your comment, let me add, with no animus whatsoever, that based upon my experience, current talks with record labels and vc's, knowledge of the current marketplace, viability and acceptance of various ad-supported models, what I hear through the industry grapevine, my familiarity with certain members of the management team, public record issues regarding litigation, the lack of reporting and/or shareholders' meetings, and just plain old common sense, I'm afraid to say that I am quite sure that this venture will never see the light of day. This is a candid and accurate assessment.
Furthermore, it is my opinion that situations like this are not only harmful to investors, but they cause problems for others who are trying to build digital music services. It's the rotten apple syndrome to some degree. It muddies the water and makes it that much more difficult to get funding and content licenses. Record labels and investors have a tendency to label and lump similar yet different models into the same category. As I mentioned in my previous post, I personally ran into this problem several times with investors when trying to get post-Virgin funding. There comes a time (another thing I learned from the MB experience) that you just have to give up the ghost and move on. I know that it is difficult--believe me. When I got the news about Virgin I was literally in the fetal position and couldn't even speak to anyone for months. It was really a blow to the solar plexus and it was very difficult to pick up the pieces and work up the energy to go out and look for more funding. In every investor presentation we always had the Virgin situation hanging over us. But hanging on really does no one any good when the writing is clearly on the wall.
In closing, I would like to thank those of you who have been exceptionally personal and rude to me in the past but who received my post yesterday in a gentlemanly manner. Believe it or not, I appreciate the civility and will once again repeat that I am happy to answer any sincere questions that anyone on this board may have.
