2008/12/04

Shazam Amplifies Music Database by a Third - FierceWireless

Shazam Amplifies Music Database by a Third - FierceWireless

Shazam is a service that identifies music. Initially a user would dial a Shazam number, hold the phone to the radio or other source and the system would then identify the track. Now Shazam have an iPhone and other clients.

Shazam have added an additional 2 million tracks to their database covering more diverse North American, Asian and European music.

Shazam uses very clever algorithms to compare the music playing with segments in their database.

As Shazam have to have all the music in digital format, they're also a very good source for licensing a digital music collection for download sites and on-line digital jukeboxes.

Carsonified sheds jobs

Another company to be hit by the economic downturn is Carsonified who have just made several of their staff redundant. Carsonified run the popular Future of Web Apps/Design, Future of Mobile, etc. They also develop applications and are a design house.

FOWA which took place in October was packed and there was a really positive buzz, FOM (though targeting a different crowd) was less of a wow.

Carsonified follow Trutap and others who've already announced job cuts.

The future of Web 2.0 may now be consolidation so companies can pool technology and resources and concentrate on making sure the business can support itself.

2008/12/01

Digg - Six Apart Welcomes Pownce

Digg - Six Apart Welcomes Pownce

Every one is putting a brave face on this i.e. Six Apart has acquired the technology and technology team of Pownce (including Kevin rose as an advisor), but what it means is that Pownce is closing down. Revision3 (another Kevin Rose venture), though still going lost a lot of staff earlier this year.

The credit crunch is hitting start-ups hard and though there's a lot of enthusiasm and hype showing that the start-up scene is still going strong, reality is slowly surfacing showing that the market is worse than people would like to think.

There still are great opportunities for start-ups and tech companies, but they need to have a business model that holds water and isn't technology for technology's sake or they'll start showing leaks and start sinking.

Companies are still beholden to their shareholders and when it comes down to it, that's what counts.

Trutap - mobile instant messaging, texting and social networking

Trutap - mobile instant messaging, texting and social networking

Trutap is shedding 80% of their staff (from 31 down to 4 or 5) so they can keep the service going while they look for new finance or sell.

Rumours of change we already being whispered at Mobile Geeks of London last week. Like many start-ups Trutap have a great technology, but they hadn't sorted out a clear revenue model (well they had developed an advertising platform, but it hadn't launched yet).

There's still too much great tech out there, with no clear revenue streams and whatever people say, business is all about generating revenue for shareholders and in these economic times shareholders get nervous.