Sonific Snuffed

There was a casualty today with the online widget playing start-up Sonific. Sonific allowed the user to add a widget to play music on their Facebook profile, blog, or website. The user could then choose what songs to play from the Sonific library which included over 200k songs. Obviously, the bigger the library, the more people likely to use the widget.

Yet, when Sonific approached the major labels to add more music, the labels demanded “unworkable” licensing agreements for use of the music. Sonific co-founder Gene Leonhard lovingly called the record labels “certifiably dysfunctional.” Leonhard’s main complaint was that the labels were not interested in working towards a solution with the widely used streaming format readily available throughout the internet. Click here to read the complete Sonific message.

Obviously we’re only getting one point of view from Sonific’s message. It would be really interesting to hear the label’s point of view. My guess is that they need money and lots of it. If the labels are truly being unworkable with streaming music, then they completely missed the lesson from Napster.

This also has large ramifications for a number of other start-ups currently in beta format that have built their model on streaming music.

My thoughts are that if someone takes the time to add a music playing widget to their blog or webpage, then they are probably going to put their top 5 songs on that widget. What an incredible way for people to share their favorite music and for the labels to get more people to hear the music they are putting out. I would trust 5 songs my friend is listening more than 5 songs a record company told me to listen to.

Note to record labels – if you stop one outlet, people will switch to another. It’s called the internet and it’s fast.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com