(Credit: Fuzz)
Any entrepreneur taking a crack at a digital music startup must either be super determined, completely crazy, or a both. The chances of legal run-ins with the labels are high. And even when you play by the rules, the rights payments are so steep that making a profitable business is all but impossible.
Yet this isn't deterring Jeff Yasuda, a 40-year-old venture capitalist turned entrepreneur who's been doggedly running music startups since 2006. His latest, Fuzz (the same name as his first startup), comes out of stealth mode today after a year of building a team -- one that includes former bigwigs from MTV, Clear Channel and Rhapsody -- and a product from the basement of his house in San Francisco.
Fuzz CEO Jeff Yasuda
(Credit: Michael Eldredge)
Fuzz bills itself as great radio made by real people. What that means is that it's a site where anyone who participates becomes a DJ. You upload music you own (legally, of course), and it all lives on Fuzz's servers; Fuzz, in a sense, becomes a digital locker that let's you showcase your music. You create playlists, people follow you, and they give you "props," all of which ups your social standing and surfaces your playlists. The listeners decide what's most popular and which DJs are best in any number of genres -- from "indie madness" to 90s Hip Hop" to "ear po... [Read more]
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