Type of business | Private |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Headquarters | San Francisco & Los Angeles, California |
Key people | Bobby Davidorf (Co-Founder), Karen Katz (Co-Founder), Steve Petersen (CTO) |
URL | www.playlist.com |
Current status | work in progress |
Playlist.com is a domain name that formerly hosted a commercial-free Internet radio service called Playlist, which had approximately 60 million users. [1] The domain is owned by Playlist Media, which operates under the brand Playlist. As of mid-2017, the website lists only Jam Music, a streaming service and iOS app available in the United States.
Playlist was founded in February 2006 [2] by Jeremy Riney for the purpose of putting more music on Myspace and other social networking sites. [3] From a userbase of less than 500,000 in mid-2006, it grew to more than 20,000,000 users as of June 30, 2008 and 50,000,000 users by June 30, 2011. It was originally known as Project Playlist with the domain name of projectplaylist.com, before it acquired its current domain name of playlist.com and became known as Playlist.com. On February 1, 2013 Playlist Media, Inc. acquired playlist.com and on July 1, 2013, Playlist.com relaunched as a personalized radio service. [4] In June 2015, the Playlist.com personalized radio service was brought offline.[ citation needed ]
Playlist experienced legal issues early in its history. Those issues have been resolved.
On April 28, 2008, the RIAA and a coalition of nine record labels filed a lawsuit against the company for contributing to mass copyright infringement. [5] However, two similar cases against MySpace and Imeem were largely the opening moves in settlements which would see these music sites licensing the content and compensating artists for the use of their music. Project Playlist already has begun contracts with Sony BMG.
On December 19, 2008, MySpace quickly began removing the Project Playlist music player from all profiles and subsequently leaving the affected users a message in their inbox which notified them of the removal. This amounted to a temporary ban of Project Playlist, largely due to complaints brought forth by the artists, asserting that Project Playlist should be paying royalties.
Facebook also later banned Project Playlist from its site. [6]
On May 11, 2010, it was reported that Playlist reached a settlement with Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group [7] for an undisclosed amount.
On February 1, 2013, the site playlist.com was acquired by a third party free of outstanding legal issues with the music recording and publishing industries. [ citation needed ]
Kazaa Media Desktop is a discontinued peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol licensed by Joltid Ltd. and operated as Kazaa by Sharman Networks. Kazaa was subsequently under license as a legal music subscription service by Atrinsic, Inc. According to one of its creators, Jaan Tallinn, Kazaa is pronounced ka-ZAH (/kəˈzaː/).
LimeWire is a discontinued free software peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) client for Windows, OS X, Linux and Solaris. LimeWire uses the gnutella network as well as the BitTorrent protocol. A zero-cost version and a purchasable "enhanced" version were available; LimeWire Pro could be acquired through the regular LimeWire software without payment, as users distributed it through the software without authorization. BitTorrent support is provided by libtorrent.
Napster is an audio streaming service provider owned by MelodyVR. It originally launched on June 1, 1999, as a pioneering peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing software service with an emphasis on digital audio file distribution. Audio songs shared on the service were typically encoded in the MP3 format. It was founded by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker. As the software became popular, the company ran into legal difficulties over copyright infringement. It ceased operations in 2001 after losing a wave of lawsuits and filed for bankruptcy in June 2002. Its assets were eventually acquired by Roxio, and it re-emerged as an online music store. Best Buy later purchased the service and merged it with its Rhapsody branding on December 1, 2011.
Michael Robertson is the founder and former CEO of MP3.com, an Internet music site. In the years following his departure from MP3.com Robertson has launched several failed companies, including Linspire, SIPphone, MP3tunes, and Ajax13. He is also founder of OnRad.io, a search engine for radio and DAR.fm, a website for recording audio from internet radio.
iMesh was a media and file sharing client that was available in nine languages. It used a proprietary, centralized, P2P network (IM2Net) operating on ports 80, 443 and 1863. iMesh was owned by American company iMesh, Inc., who maintained development centers around the world. As of 2009, it was the third most popular music subscription service in the US.
MP3.com is a web site operated by CNET Networks publishing tabloid-style news items about digital music and artists, songs, services, and technologies. It is better known for its original incarnation as a legal, free music-sharing service, named after the popular music file format MP3, popular with independent musicians for promoting their work. That service was shut down on December 2, 2003 by CNET, which, after purchasing the domain name, established the current MP3.com site.
A file hosting service, cloud storage service, online file storage provider, or cyberlocker is an internet hosting service specifically designed to host user files. It allows users to upload files that could be accessed over the internet after a user name and password or other authentication is provided. Typically, the services allow HTTP access, and sometimes FTP access. Related services are content-displaying hosting services, virtual storage, and remote backup.
This is a timeline of events in the history of networked file sharing.
The online service imeem was a social media website where users interacted with each other by streaming, uploading and sharing music and music videos. It operated from 2003 until 2009 when it was shut down after being acquired by MySpace.
Arts and media industry trade groups, such as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), strongly oppose and attempt to prevent copyright infringement through file sharing. The organizations particularly target the distribution of files via the Internet using peer-to-peer software. Efforts by trade groups to curb such infringement have been unsuccessful with chronic, widespread and rampant infringement continuing largely unabated.
The use of the BitTorrent protocol for sharing of copyrighted content generated a variety of novel legal issues. While the technology and related platforms are legal in many jurisdictions, law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies are attempting to address this avenue of copyright infringement. Notably, the use of BitTorrent in connection with copyrighted material may make the issuers of the BitTorrent file, link or metadata liable as an infringing party under some copyright laws. Similarly, the use of BitTorrent to procure illegal materials could potentially create liability for end users as an accomplice.
CNET, stylised C|net, is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally, owned by Red Ventures since 2020. Founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through that unit's acquisition of CNET Networks in 2008, which was the previous owner prior to October 30, 2020. CNET originally produced content for radio and television in addition to its website and now uses new media distribution methods through its Internet television network, CNET Video, and its podcast and blog networks.
RedTube is a pornographic video sharing site, which in September 2009 held an Alexa ranking within the world's top 100 sites. It is one of several pornographic websites owned by Mindgeek. In June 2010 it had fallen out of the top 100, but it made a return in mid-2012. As of mid September 2020 its Alexa ranking was 520. Its popularity has been ascribed to its non-sexual name, which is a reference to the non-pornographic video sharing website YouTube. The website is based in Houston, Texas and has servers in San Francisco, New Orleans and Montreal.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legally sold recorded music in the United States". RIAA is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Jango is an American free online music streaming service available worldwide.
Web Sheriff is an anti-piracy company based in the United Kingdom that provides intellectual property, copyright and privacy rights protection services. The company monitors various websites that host links to downloads of music and film. Web Sheriff has been in operation since 2000, with two offices in the UK.
In the first decade of the 21st century, the rise of digital media on the internet and computers as a central and primary means to record, distribute, store, and play music caused widespread economic changes in the music industry. The rise of digital media with high-speed internet access fundamentally changed the relationships between artists, record companies, promoters, retail music stores, the technology industry, and consumers. The rise of digital music consumption options contributed to several fundamental changes in consumption. One significant change in the music industry was the remarkable decline of conventional album sales on CD and vinyl. With the A la carte sales models increasing in popularity, consumers no longer download entire albums but rather choose single songs.
Grooveshark was a web-based music streaming service owned and operated by Escape Media Group in the United States. Users could upload digital audio files, which could then be streamed and organized in playlists. The Grooveshark website had a search engine, music streaming features, and a music recommendation system.
Arista Records LLC v. Lime Group LLC, 715 F. Supp. 2d 481, is a United States district court case in which the Southern District of New York held that Lime Group LLC, the defendant, induced copyright infringement with its peer-to-peer file sharing software, LimeWire. The court issued a permanent injunction to shut it down. The lawsuit is a part of a larger campaign against piracy by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
8tracks.com or infinitetracks.com is an internet radio and social networking website revolving around the concept of streaming user-curated playlists consisting of at least 8 tracks. Users create free accounts and are able to browse the site and listen to other user-created mixes, as well as create their own mixes. The site also has a subscription-based service, 8tracks Plus, although this is currently only available to listeners based in the United States and Canada.