Online music startups fighting to survive
Online music startups fighting to survive ( CNET ) -- A torrent of bad economic news is pouring down on Web 2.0 music sites, just like everywhere else. What's surprising is that even amid the horror story that is our economy, some online record stores have impressed music-industry poobahs, say insiders. Several lesser-known online music services are struggling to emerge as rivals to iTunes. Lala, Google's YouTube, and Last.fm, owned by CBS (parent company of CNET News), are some of the companies that executives at some of the top labels say are generating "cautious optimism." At the same time, some big-label managers are underwhelmed with the performance of several shops, such as ad-supported download site SpiralFrog, and social network Imeem. To be sure, none of the start-ups is delivering iTunes-like numbers. Digital music services are still in their infancy and have the misfortune of