

Kim Dotcom - Megabox, disruptive new music service - hoi
http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/08/13/kim-dotcom-promises-disruptive-new-music-service-megabox-will-launch-year/

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coderdude
It looks like he's recently tried to change his image from mega villian to
"freedom fighter." At least that's what he calls himself on his Twitter
account. Although it does seem like a troll towards the people who have been
after him.

Does this qualify as a heel face turn?
<http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeelFaceTurn>

~~~
kahawe
He has been doing the exact same thing for almost 2 decades now. He started
out on BBS and distributed "warez" over a bbs he ran and then famously turned
everyone in the scene in to the police when they caught him and cut him a
deal. He did the same thing with megaupload by providing a platform and making
money from it and I am sure megabox will be like that as well. Lots of
marketing hype and huge, romantic promises and lots of shades of grey and
nothing much behind it, least of all a legitimate business.

Some of the stunts he pulled in between his BBS days and megaupload was to
royally scam "letsbuyit.com" which he got convicted for and then he tried to
open a "very high-wealth individuals" automatic trading system which obviously
bombed. And back in the day he flamed the German CCC and loved to flash the
word "hacker" as if he belongs. He sold a company he founded, DataProtect, to
the renowned TÜV Rheinland and it turned out to be a scam and crashed. And
before that he got caught dealing stolen calling cards.

He is and has been a trickster, an opportunist, a self-proclaimed "hacker" and
above all an egomaniac who now, by sheer luck alone, finds himself on the more
fortunate, romantic Robin-Hood side of things but his basic principles and
ideas and greed haven't changed one bit.

~~~
iwwr
Nevertheless, he is worth defending. There's more at stake than just the man.
The things they do to Dotcom are indicative of the current involvement of US
politics with the IP lobby. This relationship is having repercussions all over
the world. Faced with a failing business model, IP companies are investing
their ever-scarce capital into political rent-seeking, the consequences of
which would be the destruction of privacy and creative freedom.

~~~
jlgreco
A million times this.

Furthermore, we must not forget that even the "guiltiest" and scummiest men
deserve the full protections the law affords. Shortcuts around due process
_cannot_ be justified by saying, correctly or not, "This guy is a total sleeze
and guilty as hell".

~~~
res0nat0r
Please stop saying a million times this...

Also due process was followed as far as I know. Read the indictment. There was
enough evidence to have his assets seized just like any other business if
there is enough evidence to believe there are ongoing illegal activities. And
yes the NZ government did agree to this also, otherwise his arrest in NZ
wouldn't have happened.

~~~
jlgreco
Apollogies for using that phrase. I did not know it had the power to offend.

The issue specifically is the apparently illegal search warrant/raid. Well,
actually to be honest that by itself does not particularly disturb me,
mistakes are always made. The issue is the number of people I see on HNs
dismissing what they see as technicalities because they know he is guilty.

The justice system is designed to afford protections to the obviously guilty
because without that, it is no different than mob justice.

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wccrawford
"Dotcom’s new venture, Megabox — a service that allows artists to sell music
direct to users"

Direct, through a middleman? Ugh.

~~~
rwmj
Whether or not Megabox itself is a good thing, there's every reason to want to
use a middleman when distributing music. Do you enjoy setting up web servers,
employing web designers, handling CC transactions, selling ad space, etc? Or
do you really enjoy making music and don't mind giving away a 10% slice to
have someone else do all that?

I run a small music web server as a favour to a friend[1], and honestly it's a
pain in the neck to manage it. If we could hand the whole lot over to whatever
is the next MySpace, then we would.

[1] <http://circulus.org>

~~~
fwdbureau
Not necessarily the next myspace, but bandcamp.com may be what you're looking
for

~~~
dyeje
Bandcamp is a fantastic service that doesn't get nearly enough mention in
these kinds of conversations. They've really already perfected this direct to
fan model. They've even implemented a merch store into the service, allowing
you to do all of your business through it.

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k-mcgrady
Interested to see what 'MegaKey' is. There are only a few obvious ways to make
money with free music: advertising and up-selling subscriptions. If he's
managed to come up with a better way that's great. Maybe it will force Spotify
and the other 'free' music services into splitting revenue more fairly rather
than the current model of giving most of it to the major labels and screwing
the indies.

~~~
Zirro
"Interested to see what 'MegaKey' is."

The last time I checked, when Megaupload was still online and Megakey was
being tested, it worked by replacing existing Internet-ads with ones served
through the Mega-network when a person surfed the web. Essentially, it's a
voluntarily installed ad-ware.

~~~
k-mcgrady
Thanks this if the first I've heard of it. I could see that being an
interesting proposition for many people (the ones who refuse to pay for any
music). As someone who still buys music and subscribes to Spotify Premium
there's no way I would use it.

~~~
icebraining
Spotify is great, unless you happen to be part of the 90% of the world
population that they don't support.

~~~
k-mcgrady
It will get their eventually. It took iTunes a long time too but they are, I
think, now the biggest music retailer.

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valdiorn
How is that different from Bandcamp?

~~~
thirdsun
I doubt it will be anywhere close to the quality that bandcamp currently
offers. Given that this is Kim Schmitz we're talking about, I guess this will
taste more like Grooveshark, operating in a very gray area, instead of a
really caring about artists and listeners. But we'll see.

Besides I couldn't be more satisfied with bandcamp - this is a great place for
artists and music enthusiasts alike. Everything from the flexible pricing
options to the wide range of available formats and details like the
lightweight and flawless HTML5 audio player and overall site design are very
much appreciated. And perhaps most importantly there's actual talent to be
found on bandcamp - it's hard for a competitor to build a similar community.

I may be wrong and this is very subjective and speculative but as far as I can
imagine the average megaupload user I would expect to see a lot of low quality
"DJ Überbazz"-kind of artists on Megabox instead of the ecclectic selection
you would find on bandcamp. On the listener side - and again, if the
Megaupload user base is anything to go by - I would imagine people that aren't
that much into obscure indie artists and rather expect to find popular artists
from major labels. For obvious reasons I guess that won't happen though -
unless, of course, Megabox aims for Grooveshark's approach to featuring the
repertoire of major labels.

Again, the last paragraph is pure speculation and just reflects what I expect
from a music service by Kim Schmitz.

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radicalcut
I can't know how will this turn out eventually but I really hope for this (or
something like this) to be a turning point for the music industry.

I love music, I really do, but at some point I became so disgusted by the way
the industry works that I almost stopped caring. There surely is a better way
to distribute music which would allow musicians to earn more money and the
consumer to spend less at the same time by leaving out labels and
distributors.

~~~
thirdsun
What you're hoping for is already here. I'm sorry since I already praised
bandcamp in another comment, however this comes very close to the better way
you mentioned. As an artist you have a lot of options today - a label contract
is just one of them. Bandcamp, Topspin, CDBaby (are they still around?) or
direct website sales are the alternatives. And of course let's not forget
smaller independent labels. It is perfectly possible to be successful without
a major label these days. If an artist decides to go the traditional route, it
is his decision and it wasn't his only option.

I seriously doubt that Dotcom has the artists in mind with this new venture,
it is a nice way to advertise the service though and he certainly knows that.
Let's see.

