

What I've learned in 30 days since launch (and looking for a cofounder) - zackattack
http://www.hiphopgoblin.com/blog/2009/09/looking-for-a-cofounder-or-what-ive-learned-in-the-28-days-since-launch/

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revorad
Awesome dude! Instead of making hollow claims of doing something in a weekend,
you have actually built a site up to 180 uniques/day within a month?

Respect.

~~~
zackattack
I built it part-time in a week, and then it immediately went to 180
uniques/day. But without (minimal) hands-on involvement traffic has decreased
to ~55 uniques/day. The prospect of throwing out all the code and the redoing
v2 myself is just psychologically daunting. In looking for a cofounder, I'm
mostly seeking social support and motivation (as well as someone a little more
technically experienced to complement me)

~~~
jmtame
feel free to also check out hndir.com if you're looking for co-founders.
everyone there is a verified undergrad in a particular school.

~~~
zackattack
error: our sendmail is fubar. please e-mail jtame2@illinois.edu.

~~~
joshhart
Same here. Would you mind adding alumni support & status? I'd like to register
but I just graduated.

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bittersweet
I'm not trying to plug my own stuff, but just wanted to tell you I've been
busy doing something like this a while back as well :)

You can check it out here (Dutch) <http://www.denachtdienst.org/> or an artist
page <http://www.denachtdienst.org/users/freddie-flinkstoned>

Source is available as well at
<http://github.com/bittersweet/denachtdienst.org>

Let me know if you want to talk about it or if you want to borrow/steal
something ;-)

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wvenable
"There is a built-in business model here: smart advertising. Artists can pay
to have their songs cued up to FOO listeners in exchange for BAZ dollars."

Ok, but how do you intend to actually get this advertising money? It's not as
simple "if you build it, they will come". You need to be able to sell the site
to advertisers. I didn't see anything in your "About me" background that makes
you qualified for the "make money" part of this venture. Or you just planning
to sell it to someone else to make that happen?

~~~
Gibbon
"Artists can pay" is a legal minefield.. lots of potential payola/pay-to-
play/bribery issues unless it's made very clear that the artists are paying.
Otherwise the more popular you get, the more likely you'll get the FCC
crawling down your back.

The music industry is one of the most litigious on the planet.. you have to
have balls of steel to play in that fishtank.

[http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2008/09/articles/internet-
ra...](http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2008/09/articles/internet-radio/payola-
on-internet-radio-legal/)

~~~
zaidf
Anyone know the last time a website got in FCC trouble for pay to play?

~~~
GrandMasterBirt
My co-worker ran radio stations and shows (independent) you have no idea how
fucked up they can be!

Basically they want metrics on what you play, how much of it for national
tracking so they can pay the artists/songwriters/record labels according to
some fucked up laws. And you have to have special licenses to play the song
online vs on a radio, etc. Its all insane. Basically get really familiar with
online-radio broadcasting laws.

Also while I'd love to chat about co-founding there is no "about" page were I
can at least have an email or number to contact.

~~~
zackattack
info@hiphopgoblin.com

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zaidf
Hey, since you said you are a big fan of Eric Reis/Blank, I had to ask you if
you are doing the customer development survey(<http://survey.io>)?

More here: [http://startup-marketing.com/free-customer-development-
help-...](http://startup-marketing.com/free-customer-development-help-
surveyio/)

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movix
I liked this when you launched it here recently. I still don't understand how
you're dealing with the PRS issues though. At some point, someone has to pay
the artists. Can you give any insights on how you deal with this?

Best of luck with a great app.

~~~
zackattack
I am making a shift to artist-uploads only. It turns out that most of the
popular songs on hiphopgoblin v1 are actually songs by less-known artists.
There is a high demand for better upload/management features so that's what
I'm building. Conveniently, when they upload the songs the artists themselves
can agree to give me rights to play their music. Nice it works out this way.

~~~
Gibbon
If any of the musicians are ASCAP members, then you're going to need an ASCAP
licence and you'll have to pay performance royalties unless you get legal
agreements with all the artists to waive their royalties as a part of your
fees.

There's also the whole copyright infringement issue and users uploading
material they don't have the rights to. You'll need to monitor uploads
constantly.

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nobody_nowhere
Very cool. Sounds like a Hype Machine for hiphop. My advice: build in
reporting/analytics capture into your code early, and solicit user feedback
aggressively. Good luck!

~~~
zackattack
Do you have any tips on best ways to solicit user feedback aggessively?

As for analytics, do you recommend anything more advanced than simply Google
Analytics?

~~~
nobody_nowhere
Analytics: if GA tells you everything that happens on your site, then you're
good to go. I'd want to know # of thumbs up, thumbs down, fast forwards,
facebook shares, or any other activity, broken down by user, song, artist,
label, geography, browser, time of day, day of week, and where you found the
initial song. Why? It's going to help you understand your users, and more
importantly, it's the info that people who want to advertise on your site
might want.

Feedback: This is just me, but I'm too lazy to copy your email address, switch
programs/tabs/whatver, paste, type, and send. Give me a form. Click-type-
click. Plenty of people might just want to say 'hell yeah' without giving
their email address. You can't buy something like that, and it's the kind of
thing that will keep you rolling.

I'm listening now. This is great. If you want a quick brain dump on online ads
I'll send you my email address.

~~~
zackattack
I would love a quick brain dump on online ads. My email address is
info@hiphopgoblin but if you would prefer I can email you first once you give
me your address

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maxklein
Nice site, good idea. Fix your design for cheap by asking designers on rent a
coder to make you a psd.

