Re:How To Stop Domain Names Being Seized By The US Government
by paul9290 on Saturday February 05, 2011 @11:20PM
(#2184919)
These sites would have no users if it wasnt for the highly valuable content that millions love and clamor for; content that cost millions to make and even more to market.
Overall by the looks of it, it's going to be increasingly hard to maintain and profit from sites like these. Maybe this will force us back to desktop software like limewire, but a modern version.
The innocent victim is a link dump for mp3s from Snoop Dogg, 50 cent, Timbaland and a bunch of other artists.
Takes about 5 seconds to see their business model - get the traffic in by providing popular music they're going to have to remove... but not before they've made some money off it.
These guys have got it down to an art too - they actually upload the songs to a site that encourages "artists" to upload "their" songs and pays you when people download it inconveniently for free or conveniently via premium download accounts.
Apparently Snoop Dogg is so incredibly generous he wants them to be paid for giving away his music too - not just from the ads on their site, but from the download service as well.
But maybe these blogs are right and not just churning out fluff that converts well to ad impressions. I could be that jaded, maybe these really are impeccable sites, innocent victims, and not profiteering off piracy.