Napster 3.0

Disclaimer: The service I'm about to write about I'm absolutely in love with. I think it's visionary, and is hands down the best music experience I've ever had on the web. However, it brings up some interesting questions about copyright, the DMCA, and the freedom to build tools that other folks might use for illegal activity--we should be talking about it.

The service I'm speaking of is The Hype Machine. The Hype Machine is a free service that scours music blogs for posts that include links to Mp3 files. It turns out there are a ton of blogs out there doing this, and blogs are the perfect format for sharing music. However, hunting and pecking for MP3 files across hundreds of sites is time consuming and unorganized (i.e. you can visit a bunch of blogs looking for Bob Dylan bootlegs but you're gonna have a heck of time).

The Hype Machine takes all this unstructed data including blogs, blog posts, artists, track names, and mp3 files, and organizes the information. They then let you play this information in your favorite music player or Flash. However, that's not where the magic really happens. The magic is when the service creates RSS feeds with enclosures of any artist or blog out there.

So, you could subscribe to a Neil Young RSS feed in iTunes and see something like this:

Now, you're not going to know as the user where these mp3s are coming from and if they're illegal. In fact, I don't use the service for existing artists. Nope, I use it for discovery. I subscribe to all these odd-named blogs and download a cross section of odd-named music that I've never heard about, and that is selected by people with much better taste and time on their hands than I have. With these Niel Young tracks you might be able to figure out if some of them are copyrighted, but who the heck knows since Niel Young likes to give away mp3s for free on this site.

If YouTube.com was the tool that I referred to Napster 2.0 the HypeMachine is Napster 3.0.

Should this thing be stopped? I don't think so since the a) the site has a very legal use, b) they seem to take anything down that anyone complains about, and c) they are not hosting the files they are just pointing to them. Also, they make a point all over their site of linking to the paid options for people (I wonder how many folks take that option?).

The music industry should, in my mind, get behind the Hype Machine and pay them to promote their artists. It's gotta be the greatest music discovery site ever created.

Jan 25th 2007 1:08AM
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1. This seems similar to the way bittorrent works. Even though torrent tracker sites don't actually store files, they are still under attack by authorities for promoting ilegal distribution.

Since most of the music linked by bloggers is likely to be copyrighted, I'm guessing this service will come under attack as well.

Posted at 1:51PM on Jan 25th 2007 by DarkMatter

2. This site is great. I've been using it for at least a year. I'm surprised it hasn't caught on more quickly. Maybe this is just one of those instances of blogging communities being somewhat insular (in this case, popular music blogging tools staying under the radar).

Posted at 2:19PM on Jan 25th 2007 by John P

3. I have a full blown hype machine addiction. I use it every day without file--both searching via the site, looking at what's popular and subscribing to feeds for varoius artists.

I can say without hesitation that I buy more music than ever and much of it I fall in love with via the hype machine.

Business 2.0 did a piece on the site a while back, which you can read online at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/10/01/8387122/index.htm?postversion=2006100912

Posted at 2:21PM on Jan 25th 2007 by John Ounpuu

4. In legal terms, you'd call them accessory to the crime. Helping to kill someone can be just as bad as killing them.

Posted at 2:38PM on Jan 25th 2007 by lemon obrien

5. that site has been around for ages, surprised ur so late on this. also, "I don't use the service for existing artists" is bs, because the simple fact that you haven't heard of them counts nil, it is very unlikely that you do not download copyrighted music.

PS: btw it's nEIl young!

Posted at 2:59PM on Jan 25th 2007 by Franz

6. hey - The DL did a pretty funny skit about how to use The Hype Machine. you can watch it here:
http://www.spinner.com/2006/12/08/the-dl-dot-awesome-the-hype-machine/

Posted at 6:22PM on Jan 25th 2007 by andrew

7. These guy should do a mashup with Podbop.org. Right now, all entering needs of MP3 URLs needs to be done manually.

Posted at 7:56PM on Jan 25th 2007 by Nick D

8. I'd like to see the same thing for jobs and resumes - some sort of standard markup language / XML definition for them.

That way, anyone can keep their most up-to-date resume in this format on their web site or blog.

Similarly, employers can post their most up-to-date job descriptions on their corporate web sites.

Then, Google et al can easily serve up job listings and qualified resumes as easily as they do other specialized content objects on the web (like images, video, news, blog results, etc.).

We'd finally escape the grip of services like Monster.com that gouge us to post job listings ($475!?) and search ($650!?) for candidates.

Posted at 7:56PM on Jan 25th 2007 by anthropocentric

9. jason,

i finally beat you to something cool on the web.

i've been using and blogging about the hype machine for about a year.

i am not sure who turned me on to it, but i am sure it was a reader of my blog. thank god people read my blog. otherwise i wouldn't be hip to anything!

fred

Posted at 8:24PM on Jan 25th 2007 by fred

10. I couldn't agree more, Jason. I discovered The Hype Machine a few months ago and it is amazing. It's like a giant, distributed radio station that anyone can help to program, just by uploading and tagging an mp3 file. Winamp had the Shoutcast feature, but that was pretty much confined to an individual playlist -- with the Hype Machine, you get a radio station as big as the web. Extremely cool.

Posted at 8:48PM on Jan 25th 2007 by Mathew Ingram

11. Best. idea. ever.

One more nail in the coffin of the failure previously known as DRM.

P.S. Thanks Fred. You were the original person to turn me on to The Hype Machine.

Posted at 9:49PM on Jan 25th 2007 by Jon Bische

12. wow, this is indeed cool. i used to go to the college record shop and buy albums based on their artwork (you know, back when you could SEE the art?)... found some rad stuff that way

Posted at 10:35PM on Jan 25th 2007 by Victor Agreda, Jr.

13. Awesome. Just awesome.

Posted at 2:24AM on Jan 26th 2007 by Bill Ferrante

14. The legal issues with both The Hype Machine and the somewhat similar elbo.ws ( http://elbo.ws/ ) (as well as the glitchy: blogmusik http://www.blogmusik.net/ ) - both great sites - are complex and from a lawyer's standpoint really interesting. Both sites have to grate on the RIAA, and no doubt the RIAA is monitoring both sites and has authorized its legal team to prepare legal actions in the event that the RIAA determines to pull the trigger on a lawsuit against the sites. What is likely holding them back is (i) neither site has achieved truly universal adoption, (ii) many of those who regularly use the sites do not yet use the advanced features, such as the feeds noted by Jason, and (iii) there is significant risk that the RIAA might lose such a lawsuit (i.e., a court determines the sites are merely googles for music, search engines that don't themselves host infringing content, and with substantial non-infringing uses), and such a loss could establish legal precedents for the RIAA that would significantly harm the RIAA in other areas. Elbo.ws (which seems to have a better selection of non-U.S. music blogs) and The Hype Machine are perhaps in slightly different legal positions: Elbo.ws excerpts text from the relevant blog entry and it appears to have less developed tools than The Hype Machine.

The great thing about the Hype Machine is that it addresses the need for a practical, easy to use filter for all the music blogs and free music available now on the web. Besides the feeds, the "popular" tab on The Hype Machine (and elbo.ws) instantly give one an idea of the buzz tracks and artists gaining traction on the music blogs. This sort of group tastemaker function is very useful. Hopefully, they will expand their features in the future so that an artist search pulls up not just blog posts and mp3 tracks, but the artist's website, links to music press pieces on the artist, tour schedule, etc.

Songbird ( http://www.songbirdnest.com/ ), still under development, which incorporates a music player and browser using the firefox/mozilla architecture, could be as or more revolutionary than even The Hype Machine, particularly if it eventually incorporates tabbed browsing and feeds. iTunes has significant limitations that Songbird is ideally positioned to exploit. If I were a VC, I'd take positions in The Hype Machine and Songbird, as well as come up with a "for profit" live music archive ( http://www.archive.org/details/etree ).

Posted at 3:15PM on Jan 26th 2007 by Dean Wermer

15. A (now defunct) mp3 blog, Good Hodgkins, late last year had an interesting post on whether or not The Hype Machine and Elbo.ws are good for mp3 blogs and the music business. The proprietors of both mp3 search engines participated in the comments. At http://www.goodhodgkins.com/2006/10/04/so-are-the-hype-machine-and-elbows-bad-for-business/

Posted at 3:35PM on Jan 26th 2007 by Dean Wermer

16. 'enterpreneur in action' is a great definition.

Posted at 8:37PM on Jan 27th 2007 by kc bhatt

17. I'm a huge fan of the Hype Machine. You're right that it's a great way to discover new bands, and the labels SHOULD be supportive. Would they rather people listened to their music or ignored it completely?
When a company's trying to make a profit, "free" is the price that will get people interested.

I'm hooked.

Posted at 1:44PM on May 15th 2007 by Linkjockey

18. I'm a huge fan of the Hype Machine. You're right that it's a great way to discover new bands, and the labels SHOULD be supportive. Would they rather people listened to their music or ignored it completely?
When a company's trying to make a profit, "free" is the price that will get people interested.

I'm hooked.

Posted at 6:50PM on May 15th 2007 by Linkjockey

19. Best idea till now, I couldn't agree more, Jason. I found the Hype Machine last week, and it's soooooooo coooooolll!!!

Posted at 10:37PM on May 29th 2007 by Actimel

20. Mp3 industry don't loose anything from promotion such programs through Internet. Actually, I don't understand why is it still illegal.

Posted at 3:07PM on Jul 31st 2007 by Artem

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