Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 14th January 2009
14 COMMENTS 
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Morten Lund, the (in)famous Danish entrepreneur of Skype fame was yesterday officially declared bankrupt. The founder who we have discussed previously has founded/co-invested in more than 40 startups in the last 10 years – the most famous being Skype, snapped up by eBay for $2.6 billion.
In may 2008, Lund sold Danish social networking and mobile backup site ZYB to Vodafone, for a figure of around $49 milion. However, despite the success of Lunds previous investments, one startup Nyhedsavisen has brought the entrepreneur to bankruptcy.
The startup was officially closed down in August 2008 with Lund losing 10M Krona (1.3M EUR) in the investment.
Lund has always been known for his honesty and directness, highlighted over and over again on his blog. The entrepreneur also wrote a brutally honest post regarding the closure a few months ago which is also a must read.
Mike Butcher from TechcrunchUK also highlighted a wonderful speech from Lund given at Le Web last year, I highly recommend you watch.
**Update**
Morten has just posted a wonderful update regarding the situation which I highly recommend you read.
Written on 30th August 2008
4 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Every once in a while we publish an interview with a start-up. We ask five questions, hoping the answers will give you inspiration and new views.
This time we’re interviewing Chris and Adriaan Bol, twin brothers, from Cloudspeakers. This is an open music community, founded in November last year. They aggregate links to reviews, (legal) music (videos), and news. The whole music mash-up is backed by a social network where users can show their music taste. Or a lack of it.. Although I doubt those people would find their ways within Cloudspeakers, as the service oozes pure love for music. This can cause a somewhat overwhelming experience, as the site is completely stuffed with lists to music outlets. So be prepared for that.
The musicfreaks-only site recently received an undisclosed amount of funding from the Dutch Creative Industry Fund (DCIF) Veronica Holding.
Chris and Adriaan have found a cool way to answer my questions, as they quote from songs. Click on the quotes to see the music videos on YouTube.
How did you come up with the idea of Cloudspeakers?
“”It’s all like a dream. No, better.” (from Collapsing at Your Doorstep by Air France)
Before Cloudspeakers we were in doubt. Some basic questions were asked. Which way should I go, the emotional or rational path? In Cloudspeakers we saw an opportunity in which both sides came together. With the start-up of Cloudspeakers we realized our dream of combining arts with science. (more…)
Written on 24th August 2008
6 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Sometimes I look back at the good ol’ days of Magix Music Maker 6. I used to spent hours in my bedroom, creating cheesy dance songs. The software so rich and incredibly complex, at least that’s what I thought back then. Little did I know that a decade later, tools like Magix Music Maker would’ve found their ways to the web. Some are even more sophisticated than the hobby-minded music tool. Remember the incredible audio tool from Hobnox? This morning I received a tip about another music editing tool called Koblo.
Technology caught up with a vision
The Aarhus, Denmark-based developers have enriched their desktop software (which dates from 1998) with an online community.t Founder Max Gronlund looks back the days of ‘98: “Big stars had teams of experts and sophisticated working groups to produce their music. I wondered how could technology be used to do that for all musicians. I wanted to create tools that connect people to music and musicians to each other. Technology has now caught up with that vision. With the advances in web applications and computing in the cloud, we can now collaborate globally in a way that really works. Enabling groups of people to work together in an efficient fashion.”"
What does Koblo add?
This is also the thought behind Berlin-based start-ups Hobnox and Soundcloud, although the latter doesn’t provides audiotools. The people behind these companies told me that both music start-ups are doing pretty good. Is Koblo too late? Or does this Danish service adds something Hobnox and Soundcloud don’t?
Apart from my Magix Music Mixer glory days, I don’t have any experience mixing and recording music. So I have to leave the mixing comparison between Hobnox and Koblo up to the experts. I can say that an advantage of Hobnox is that musicians can do everything online. Moreover, Hobnox is free. Koblo charges money for several plugins. On the other hand, their software is open source.
Sell those tracks
But there is definitely one thing which gives Koblo added value in the online music world (once again, maybe their editing tool does as well, but I can’t be the judge), musicians can sell their tracks on the marketplace. In the ideal situation, a vibrant community emerges which will share and comment on each other’s tracks. Just like on SoundCloud. But while at Soundcloud it all revolves around indirect advantages, Koblo wants to give it users the possibility to make some money out of it as well.
Where’s the soul?
I’m not sure whether this approach will work, since a large and active community is a necessary condition. If I were Koblo, I’d take another look at competitor SoundCloud, which seems like an expert in making feel their users welcome and part of something (both online as offline). Koblo will have to show some more soul, so that their website becomes a more welcome environment. It looks a bit cold now. If Koblo succeeds in this, it might grow out to be an enrichment of the online music world.
Written on 1st May 2008
3 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
The legendary Danish toy manufacturer – who hasn’t played with the colorful bricks? – once again proves to be a modern company. After near-dead experience five years ago, Europe’s largest toymaker has been embracing the new possibilities of this digital era – like crowd sourcing – to keep children hooked to the pirates, knights, ordinary and science fiction figures. Next Web editor and crowd sourcing expert Eric Bun admitted in March that even he was tempted to download the Lego programs and start designing Lego projects.
Lego blogger
During a press conference at the Lego HQ in Billund, Mark William Hansen announced the launch of Lego Universe, a MMOG that lets players create online versions of themselves and interact with each other. It isn’t just some – let’s do something with online games- idea, as Hansen ended up at Lego after writing his doctoral thesis about mass customization.
The PC game Lego Universe will mix real-world style environments with the funny-looking characters and buildings made of plastic bricks. After creating a personalized avatar, users can spend virtual money to buy virtual bricks. Yet they don’t need real money to acquire this online currency. Hansen explained to Reuters: “The more a child plays, they collect more coins and more bricks. The more you play, the more you get to build things. We want kids to come and play together”.
I love this tactic, and hope it will prevent fraud and theft scandals as happened with Habbo Hotel. And if it doesn’t, at least kids won’t spend all their pocket-money on virtual bricks, they should spent that on soccer cards for crying out loud. Or real Lego bricks, and that’s probably what the Lego executives are hoping for.
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