Perhaps realizing people are unwilling - for whatever reason - to pay $3 a month for a service that provides consumers with an innovative way to discover new music, Pandora is rolling out a free, ad-supported version. In one sense, this is a disappointing sign for subscription-based service model given Pandora describes its first few months out of the gate as "magical", while support from "early listeners has been nothing short of overwhelming". So what does Pandara do now? Obviously, it has to jump on the advertising bandwagon, which shows all indications of rumbling ahead based on estimates from research firms such as eMarketer. The key will be Pandora's ability to draw advertisers to a niche service rather than search engines and portals. Anyone who's interested in new music has no reason not to check out Pandora. If you like it, you may be willing to even pay for a premium service.

 

It didn't take long for Greg Maffei to land on his feet. After resigning as Oracle's CFO after only three months on the job, Maffei has quickly re-emerged as Liberty Media's president and CEO. It's an intriguing move given Liberty is a media empire while Maffei has experience in software (Microsoft, Oracle) and telecom (360Networks). What Maffei brings to Liberty is financial expertise and day-to-day management skills. I mean, if you can run a telecom company after the bubble bursts, working for John Malone should be a relative breeze.

 

 

 

There has been plenty of pontificating about Web 2.0 from the high-profile crowd (Nicholas Carr, Tim O'Reilly and, most recently, Ray Ozzie) but what about the entrepreneurs working away with little recognition? How do they view the whole Web 2.0 phenomena as they struggle to put together businesses in a market where the barriers to entry are fairly low? How are these people unlike their peers during the dot-com era? For a taste of life in the real world, Toronto-based entrepreneur Michael McDerment has penned an insightful piece called "From the Web 2.0 Trenches: How to Build Real Businesses". McDerment, who runs an online invoicing service company called 2ndSite, thinks the biggest fault within Web 2.0 is the lack of focus on traditional fundamentals. For all the talk about concepts such as "perpetual betas", McDerment said Web 2.0 entrepreneurs need to focus on the basics: solving problems that generate revenue. It is a pretty simple approach but a refreshing read given all the "enthusiasm" about Web 2.0 and the pie-in-the-sky build it (the service/applications) and they (customers/revenue) will come mentality.