Hacker News Reader

I envision this could work as a newsletter in a similar mold to thesixtyone.com; indie artists (and eventually labels as you say) would want to give out their music for free, in hopes of converting into paid downloads.

If this were free you could gain wider user adoption, and thus, supply of music.

Let me ask; who do you want your customer to be? Listeners or artists?

View on HN

Well, the idea is that listeners are the customer. You may be right that it may initially get more traction as a free newsletter. But then it would basically be another mp3 blog, and that wasn't the idea.

If as you say, a free version doesn't have a competitive advantage or differentiator over mp3 blogs, why is the service better if you charge for it?

Can you line up interesting partners, make it a community somehow, crowdsource reviews from the newsletter, etc? What is the #1 reason to subscribe to your service?

Ideally, the #1 reason to sign up for the service is the curation and convenience of having it emailed to you (I guess that's 2 reasons). I have thought about publishing the newsletters a few weeks after they first appear - that may be a way to have my cake and eat it too, but it also may discourage subscriptions if people can just wait a while and view it online.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com