Just in is a statement from Facebook that they will ban the fast growing (but non-label-sanctioned) music service Project Playlist. Last Friday MySpace banned Project Playlist and removed all traces of the service from its site.
But Facebook remained silent even as music label insiders called them “irresponsible” and suggested litigation against them was on the way.
This is a big blow for Playlist, which just yesterday announced that they had their first label deal, with Sony BMG. The other three big music labels, however, remain hostile to the service.
The entire application has been removed (it used to be here), and the embedded playlists have been removed from user’s profiles. An image of what the application used to look like is below. Over 660,000 Facebook users are affected.
Facebook’s statement:
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) initially contacted Facebook last summer requesting the removal of the Project Playlist application for copyright violation, and recently reopened those communications. We have forwarded the RIAA’s letters to Project Playlist so it can work directly with that organization and music labels on a resolution. In the meantime, the application must be removed to comply with the Facebook Platform Terms of Service. Our hope and expectation is that the parties can resolve their disagreements in a manner that satisfies the developer and copyright holder, that continues to offer a great experience to music fans, and that doesn’t discourage other developers from using Platform to share their creativity and test new ideas.
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Title Misspelling “FacBook”
Facebook registered that domain as well. Clever.
fixed. thx.
I wonder if users will call their bluff.
It was only a matter of time. So what happened between last summer and the reopened communications? Nothing?
Isn’t the world tired of Facebook yet?
*yawn*
The internet was a better thing before Myspace & Facebook came along…
agreed
Was the internet a better thing before Friendster, too? How about Usenet?
Yes.
How come no one has realized that Facebook is simply AOL 2.0??? No wonder they can’t turn a profit. That model died years ago.
Agreed…I am sooooooo sick of Facebook posts. Let’s all move on in 2009 to better, more innovative, useful sites.
facebook is pretty awesome but for most of the users is just a free dating site. i know people that just use it to score as mutch chicks as possible. Netlog is even worse…
There goes my playlist… sic.
See this is the problem with these overhyped “wonderkid” operations…
Any way you look at it, the entrepreneurs of the late 70’s and 80’s had guts.. these weak web wonders are not really revolutionaries, even if they have a harvard education (all the revolutionaries are drop outs anyways).
FB is a cool place, but now I see the managment is too weak and scared to pull off the world changing moves as their predecessors.
C’mon, Bill Gates took lawsuits from everyone from Lotus to Java to Apple and you can tell the strength of a revolutionary by how brave their legal game is, and even the government tried to break MS into 2 companies, and in the end, MS remained teflon.
Shoot, even Mike Arrington laughed in the face of one lawsuit and thats why I start my day on TC and not FB.
Mark Zuckerberg is a punk.
He is a punk who played the game perfectly. By waiting for myspace to pull the app first and then waiting a few days Facebook under Mark Z was able to not look like the bad guy TO THE USERS.
Not to mention it now gives Facebook a void to create its own music platform legally.
The Facebook platform is growing. 660 000 developers are building apps for it…making it better..their facebook friends connect or whatever it is called is used in multiple sites…making life easier to users.
In time they will move in to better monetize the services.
Really what people who write posts like this are saying is “I am a jealous little person.”
I would like to see anyone here do better than Facebook. I would like to see anyone here get a 120 000 000 users.
When you do then call Mark Z a punk…
My little project delivers 300GB digital films to thousands of movie theaters across the world simultaneously as email attachments (among other things). This is an industry that makes billions a year, not bloat worth on paper.
What we do no one in the world does.. FB is a neat bite of MySpace. Why would I be jealous anyone with competition, when we don’t have any.
Find me another solution that can send 10TB of data as an e-mail attachment then maybe you can question me.
FB connects people from all over the world. You may not see that as important but 120 000 000 people do.
You want to judge things purely on how much they make yet you ignore the fact that Google didn’t make a lot of money in the beginning.
Do you make billions?
Everybody wants to call Mark Z a punk for not focusing on making money right now…yet isn’t focusing on the user first and money second the formula Google used?
When Facebook wants to make money…they will make it and make lots of it.
You sit there and talk about not having competition. I work for a company that does not have a competition and I find it depressing. I would not want to own a website with no competitors…to me competition makes you better…
I wasn’t attacking your business buddy…just you calling Mark Z a punk since he has changed the world….can you say that?
I think that the main problem is that Facebook has reached a ceiling of growth. Yes, they can still take market share away from MySpace, but with almost 300 million people between the two of them, how much bigger can they really get? The point that you made about Google is valid, however, I see one major problem with it. Google revolutionized the way Internet search is done. What has Facebook done that is revolutionary?
To me, the reason that Google was able to focus on the product was that the product would provide actual value to the user. When I think about the bulk of Facebook users, I think of bored college students looking at pictures of last night’s party. Yes, this is fun for a while, and it can definitely be an entertaining exercise to creep around, but it really does not help me in my day-to-day existence. Finally, the thing about the Facebook apps is that use of them is pretty bottom heavy. I mean, outside of the top 100, there are very few that get used by any measurable number of people.
In my opinion, Mark should have taken the billion from Yahoo. I think that is the reason that there has been such backlash against him and his business practices.
I agree Zuck is a TOOL He stole the idea, got bankrolled by the Paypal Mafia and provides a gossip site. Even the feed concept is a rip off of Multiply.
Facebook is a half billion marketing blitz, nothing more. Please, Facebook has ZERO innovation, its just a glorified people directory.
Oh and I should hope they have 120 million users..I mean with a 500 million investment, I would have that many users to.
^@ Gebadia;
I think Facebook is a cool place, I said that…
There is difference between stepping into a good situation and having the guts to stand and fight not only for your honor but the honor of the developers they use to push their valuation so high.
But..
Let’s not get this confused here, it’s always about making money. He accepted over 500 milli in funding, then yet its about making money.
The Microsoft deal was done out of pure fear from Microsoft, and Facebook took them on a bloated valuation ride.. kudos to Mark Z for that, a basic Harvard 101 business move…
But This kid has to show some guts. If you can dupe the boat brothers and become the Caligular Ceasar darling of Silicon Vally, then you have to SHOW US THE MONEY.
Lets be clear here, NO ONE is making money off Facebook.. not the investors, not the app developers and certainly not the users. After 500 milli into anything, someone must be making money somewhere besides the founders of the company.
Google’s profitability move IS the most genius decision made in web history, and they do well with their profits… invests in free software offering and many innovations and attempts to make the world better ect…
With Google’s Adsense, everyone has the opportunity to make money!
People make money with Microsoft products every minute.
And people make money with our product.
Facebook, sorry no money, but pay us $350 to have your app show above the 12,000 crap apps.
Why doesn’t Facebook have a “App Store” and allow developers to make money using their internal billing system?
Why didn’t Facebook just BUY Project Playlist for about $10,0000 and strike a deal with all the labels (with this so called 120 miili users, they have upper hand power).
Why didn’t Facebook stand up to those struggling labels and say “Look, we have 120 million users and are only a web browser-like device for Project Playlist and other applications. We stand by and support our platform and developers 100% until a legal action tells us otherwise. If you want to take legal action against us and risk destroying our good rapport moving into the future of music business models, then you bull the trigger and take that risk”.
The labels would have faltered to that type of powerful response..
Facebook could have even stepped in and loaned support to Project Playlist to get the deal done with the labels, i mean for goodness sake the app was distributed to over 600K users… nothing the RIAA has ever tried themselves on the web ever got 660k users.
But no.. Facebook folded like they work for the labels.. They cut the throat of a developer that worked hard and dedicated a popular embedded application in the Facebook machine.
When you have a company valued at $15 Billion, NO ONE makes you do anything without a proper legal fight.
Where are the Larry Ellisons of our generation? Roll up on Larry with this “irresponsible” BS and see if he don’t spend millions just to burry you in the legal grave with the comment.
Tip to FB: You just showed that you are willing to kill developers loyal to you for a group of companies that currently are doing NOTHING for Facebook.
Yes, MySpace pulled the trigger first because of the MySpace Music deals, this is understandable. Facebook has just followed MaySpace (again) and I am sure Chris and the gang couldn’t be laughing harder.
marc Z didn’t change the world… cmon, that’s just an absurd statement.
I do agree with you on facebook being able to make money. With such a userbase it’s just impossible to not make tons of money in the end. I hope he uses it good then.
All you guys made valid points. Unfortunately when you have invested money building a Facebook app you sort of have to ignore such obvious facts.
Everyone building apps is a little wary about how they do things. Facebook does a better job wishing people a merry xmas than updating them on platform changes.
Still there is money to be made in apps. It just costs a lot to build an app dynamic enough to do it.
So forgive me if I have to wear rose colored glasses. I need you all to be wrong
Great comment William…well thought out.
You know Facebook has a history now of just screwing their developers in all the wrong ways. It totally surprises me that developers even waste time anymore doing anything on the Facebook platform.
It just goes to show how spineless everyone has become.
I agree, we need the Ellisons of the tech world now more than ever, because if Facebook is the HOT thing then we are in for a crappy, and wimpy next-gen leadership.
The Facebook team folded like origami and then pulled the plug on their own developer. What a bunch of jerks!
Developers may be even dumber because they have not realized they hold the true power of Facebook’s future in their hands. If only they would mobilize and sink the Zuck ship, that would send a nice wake up call to all web platforms.
William you need to work on your retail zip website its pretty bad!
Lets face it, you have wet dreams about being in a position where mark is. hes prob half your age.
Correct me if I’m wrong Mike, weren’t you championing them for the same thing about 2-3 days ago?
Mark K. got a call from Steve B., and that is the end of that tune, as the saying goes.
Microsoft invested $246 million in Facebook not for the sake of charity. And Microsoft is well known for being paranoid about copyright issues.
Ironically, a case could be made that Microsoft is the beneficiary of massive piracy of their own software in China and elsewhere, which they, wisely, did not actively prosecute, thus creating an entire generation that knows only Microsoft OS.
You had me at “facebook folds”.
1745 facebook e-mails! yikes.
where all the facebook groupies that were claiming facebook wouldnt fold and would stand their ground in this battle?
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Now that StudiVZ has an English language version I see them taking Facebook in a foreign language insurrection.
I guess some Europeans are just smarter.
Boy. I just feel like running out and dropping a couple of hundred on CD’s right now. pfffttt!
This “can’t beat them, sue them” mentality has got to stop, why don’t they innovate instead of constantly stifling new possible streams of revenues for them!
Jon
http://WoodMarvels.com - Create Unique Memories
This is yet another example of the music industry smothering yet another way they could monetize their products in the digital age.
I used to laugh when people would chide that the industry wants to crush the electronic distribution of their products, rather than embrace the opportunity to grow into new sales channels; “used to”.
This constant fear that everyone is a thief is unnerving. It reminds me of how my local wholesale club store (BJ’s) checks everyone’s receipts as they leave the store, claiming that it stops theft. So, insulting every single customer to stop a tiny percentage of thieves is worthwhile? There has to be a better way.
learned the hard way on that one. They had better style players too.
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Once again the music industry shows how out of touch it is with todays world.
What ever happened to the TechCrunch tablet project? Is that in the deadpool yet or what?
u get 1745 mails?
Bound to happen
Playlist is a nice app and I think it has great future if it focuses on making the app better.
Their search results suck, playlist should be easier to manage and other little details that makes an app really brilliant.
how big is the facebook message box???
ever plan on opening any of those 1500+ new messages?
Always with the suing. It’s ridiculous.
Zuckerberg is a boy in a man’s world. What an ass clown. I just hope all the Facebook and MySpace developers out there realize how F’d up this move is. They would have more control working in communist China.
well if you dont like it, dont develop for it right? stop chatting mess
Stick a dick in your mouth and get back to work in your sweatshop
Facebook should launch their own music app, that way Myspace wont be better than at anything!
This is just stupid. Anytime something great comes along, like Playlist, it gets banned. Is this America or fuckin’ Israel?
How come no one has realized that Facebook is simply AOL 2.0??? No wonder they can’t turn a profit. That model died years ago
Once again the music industry shows how out of touch it is with todays world