ReadWriteStart

Amazon MP3 Store Legitimizes DoubleTwist Darknet

Written by Dana Oshiro / October 7, 2009 5:12 PM / 4 Comments

This post is part of our ReadWriteStart channel, which is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs. The channel is sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark. To sign up for BizSpark, click here.

doubletwist.jpgThe blogosphere is abuzz with news of doubleTwist music community's latest iTunes-esque music store release. While many continue to weigh in on the merits of the Amazon MP3-powered store, we shouldn't lose sight of what this actually represents. The Amazon partnership legitimizes and monetizes a startup company that is still arguably a darknet file sharing service.

Hacker "DVD Jon" Lech Johansen launched doubleTwist in 2008 to circumvent restrictive DRM and provide multi-device compatibility. Often when media player companies strive for "device compatibility" they are already compatible with most major devices and are simply looking to sync with the iPhone. The iPhone has proven elusive due to Apple's device encryption tactics. While companies like Songbird have built iPhone workarounds, DoubleTwist actually offers iPhone syncing directly from the player. In an effort to juxtapose its open format stance against Apple's proprietary file silos, doubleTwist launched the above video with the tag line "doubleTwist offers choice". In other words, when you download a file through doubleTwist's new Amazon store, you are given the choice to load it on to any device you own.

While the store is a great new feature, it will be interesting to see if users choose to purchase more or if they simply continue to share files amongst each other. While it's true that you can drag and drop into the device of their choice, you can also drag and drop files into your friend's folders as well as share files on Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. To check out the desktop store and service, download the Mac version here. The Windows version is expected to be released in the near future.

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Comments

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  1. I've been using DoubleTwist to sync to my BlackBerry for close to a year and it's basically an iTunes-like app for those of us who are not hip enough for iPhones.

    While it's true that the app contains basic, email-like sending functionality it's about as far from a "darknet" as you can get, unless you consider Gmail and Skype to be "darknet" file sharing services.

    Posted by: Bob Stevenson | October 7, 2009 5:39 PM



  2. "The Amazon partnership legitimizes and monetizes a startup company that is still arguably a darknet file sharing service."

    Are you sure it is an actual "partnership", don't get me wrong, it could be, but it could just as likely be a very clever way to monetize Amazon's affiliate program.

    Posted by: Justin | October 7, 2009 8:39 PM



  3. Yeah, amazon and palm should pump a small amount of dough into doubletwist and get some advertisements, and make things more legit looking. (not saying doubletwist is legit, but people dont trust it unless amazon and palm put their names on it)

    Posted by: jeu enfant | October 8, 2009 1:51 AM



  4. DarknetVPN.com are a great Darknet Service.

    Posted by: Nate | December 5, 2009 6:38 PM



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