Beware of Web APIs
Music 2.0 companies that rely on web APIs of other companies are always at risk that the APIs that they depend on will be turned off. If you interface with iTunes, Amazon, Yahoo, Rhapsody or many of the other music providers your business could be shut down if that company decides to alter or disable the API. This has just happened to YottaMusic. YottaMusic provided a superior interface to the Rhapsody music service that added significant value for Rhapsody subscribers. YottaMusic made Rhapsody a better place. However, according to TechCrunch, Rhapsody has shut down the non-public APIs that YottaMusic has relied upon. Without these APIs, YottaMusic can't provide any extra value, and so it has shut its doors. On the face of it, it seems crazy that Rhapsody would treat YottaMusic so poorly - I can only surmise that Rhapsody wants to retain total control of the user experience or they want to be able to license access (i.e. for money) to 3rd parties.
This should serve as a warning to all of those music
2.0 companies that rely on the APIs of others. Your livelihood
could be taken away overnight when a critical API is eliminated.
I think this goes much further than just Music 2.0 (I realize that the focus here is music). I wrote a post about this same issue--Mashups using API's from other companies. I don't understand how companies can base their ENTIRE business model on the availability and sharing of someone else's IP. When I read about some new startup that is building their product using a Google API for a significant portion of the feature set, I just shake my head.
Posted by Ivan Chalif on January 06, 2008 at 07:33 PM EST #