doubleTwist Corporation, “a company devoted to helping consumers liberate their media,” has unveiled its initial product offerings and announces the close of its Series A venture funding from Index Ventures and Northzone Ventures.
Founded in March 2007 by Monique Farantzos and Jon Lech Johansen (also known as DVD Jon), doubleTwist’s mission is to enable consumers to enjoy their digital media on the widest possible range of devices. Although the explosive adoption of CE devices has enabled any consumer to create and consume digital media, the process of sharing and moving media between the desktop and various devices such as mobile phones, gaming platforms and set-top boxes has become increasingly painful. doubleTwist is addressing this pain point by empowering consumers to easily share, consume and sync audio, video and photos regardless of device, file format or social network.
“When you receive an email, you can read it on your Blackberry, web mail, or Outlook. E-mail just works. With digital media such as video from a friend’s cell phone or your own iTunes playlists, it’s a jungle out there. It can be an hour-long exercise in futility to convert files to the correct format and transfer them to your Sony PSP or your phone,” said Monique Farantzos, co-founder and CEO of doubleTwist, in the press release. “The digital media landscape has become a tower of Babel, alienating and frustrating consumers. Our goal is to provide a simple and well integrated solution that the average consumer can use to eliminate the headaches associated with their expanding digital universe.”
doubleTwist is introducing a complete solution for sharing media between friends and family as well as syncing content to popular devices. The initial doubleTwist product offerings include doubleTwist desktop, an application featuring an intuitive interface for sharing, consuming and syncing personal media; and “Twist me!,” a social network application that allows users to share media directly from their profile pages. The beta release enables consumers to share media with their Facebook friends and provides sync support for the Sony PSP, Nokia N Series, Sony Ericsson Walkman & Cybershot phones, LG Viewty, and Windows Mobile smart phones such as those from HTC and Palm. Apple iPhone users will soon be able to view content they receive from friends by accessing doubleTwist from their phone’s Safari browser.
The desktop application, which currently works on Windows XP or Vista, is available as a free download at http://www.doubletwist.com. A Mac OS version of the desktop application is expected in Q2 2008. Support for additional devices will be added to doubleTwist desktop on a regular basis and consumers are encouraged to request integration with their favorite devices at doubleTwist.com.
With doubleTwist desktop, sharing content is as easy as dragging and dropping files to friends. Users simply select the friends they want to share photos, audio or video with and doubleTwist transparently uploads the files and notifies recipients of their availability.
doubleTwist has developed a “plug and play” solution for transferring and syncing media to supported devices. When a user connects a digital camera, mobile phone or PSP, media files are found and displayed on doubleTwist desktop. Users select the media they wish to transfer and the application transparently handles any necessary format conversions. The application also integrates with iTunes, allowing users to sync their music playlists and iTunes music purchases with their Sony Ericsson, Sony PSP, Windows Mobile, LG Viewty, Nokia N series phones and Amazon’s Kindle.
“We’ve built a format agnostic solution that handles the complexity of file and device compatibility so consumers don’t have to,” said Jon Lech Johansen, founder and CTO, in the press release.
“We are exited about our partnership with doubleTwist,” said Index Ventures Partner, Neil Rimer, in the press release. “doubleTwist has created a simple yet powerful solution for a growing consumer issue. Consumers will no longer tolerate having their digital media tied to a single device or platform. We believe they want the flexibility of managing media musing their preferred tools, purchase content in the store that offers them the best value, and enjoy their media on the device that offers the best playback experience. doubleTwist’s ability to liberate every consumer’s media should make it a hugely popular application.”
Source: doubleTwist Corporation
NEWS.com.au reports, “doubleTwist users can copy and use copy-protected Apple iTunes songs on many popular non-Apple devices including the Sony PSP, Nokia N-Series phones, and Windows Mobile smartphones.”
“DoubleTwist’s software also has a social file-sharing feature that lets users synchronise tracks with their friends online,” NEWS.com.au reports. “DoubleTwist’s method for opening up copy-protected formats is to replay a song in fast-forward mode and capture a copy of the audio track by re-recording it. It’s essentially the same process as when a user ‘rips,’ or copies, a CD onto a computer.”
“‘Users can only play back the music they have already purchased and they are authorized to play,’ said Monique Farantzos, 34, doubleTwists’s co-founder and chief executive,” NEWS.com.au reports.
“One hundred songs can be converted in half an hour or so,” NEWS.com.au reports. “DoubleTwist estimates the trick results in about five per cent degradation in sound-quality, similar to CD duplication.”
NEWS.com.au reports, “DoubleTwist has not informed Apple of their plans, but said that they expect no pushback.”
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “HMCIV” for the heads up.]
Now, if we called you dumbass instead of retard, would you still leave inane comments?
Anything that buries DRM and copyright is just fine by me. Copyright is dated and outmoded and the sooner it disappears the the better. And the same goes for dvds as well.
If anyone’s interested I just finished testing Fairmount as an alternative to Mactherippper. It works just fine.
Wow…@KenC seems a bit perturbed by KenC…I wonder if that is the real HD-DVD Jon lurking here in agony. I actually like this product from HD-DVD Jon, its a total pain in the ace to screw around with the DRM itunes music files. I need them in mp3 at times to allow play on various devices. The whole burn to CD then import as mp3 and then rename back to its orginal name instead of “track 3” leaves you with 3 versions of a song you don’t need. It also leaves you with a useless Audio CD which is obsolete.
Go on HD-DVD Jon I’m with you brohash…but lay off KenC will ya?
Video Production Las Vegas
http://www.hiproductions.com
Although it is presented as a new and innovatie feature, it doesn’t do me much good.
Using my mac book pro, iphone and ipod-video, I appearently still have to wait untill I can get material converted.
then again, a couple of weeks ago a mobile content company ( nakko.com ) launched a service that automatically converts audio and video files you want to be stored on an ipod video or to service as a ringtone on an iphone.
Maybe a good idea for Index and northzone ventures to have a chat with these guys.
Good luck dvd Jon
Here’s an interesting tidbit from their website (emphasis added):
“doubleTwist means the SpiceFlow Corporation, a company incorporated under the laws of Cayman Islands, having its registered office at PO Box 309GT, M&C;Corporate Services Limited, Ugland House, South Church St, George Town, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, and any SpiceFlow Corporation subsidiaries or affiliated companies.”
So even though doubleTwist lives in San Francisco, their real headquarters are the Cayman Islands. I sure would like a tour of those digs…
This would be useful for Mac users only if you’ve p2p downloaded other peoples mp4/ac3 files. I fell for this a couple of times. I couldn’t play the files and I couldn’t burn a CD to rip because I wasn’t authorised. Bummer.
It is precisely this reason I personally refuse to buy and ipod and support greedy rich jerkoff organizations like iTunes and RIAA and all the other riff-raf out there.
Last time I looked, the artist recieved pennies per track on a given CD times the number of CDs that were sold. This alone tells me that yes, the artist does make money, but not that much. The record label however, recieves ALL the rest of the money on that $20 disk. The artist’s real bread and butter is the tour scene, as was reflected by a couple interviews with a couple bands I heard on the radio in the past.
In the past, when vinyl was king, they justified the $10 for a record and $15 for cassette/8track, the latter higher simply because of the cost of materials above that of a record. Now with CDs and DVDs so prolific I can purchase 100 for $10, I have a hard time justifying that huge markup, so I no longer purchase CDs for one or two songs I might like on it.
Online sources are fine, but the moment they kick in DRM, especially with iTunes and the iPod, I am locked into ONLY that device to play it on. Before, I could move my CD to any player out there, my tape or record…I had the control, not the other way around.
So my big middle finger goes up to these greedy suits with regard, and they lose out on the revenue because of the proprietary crap and DRM. I’ll download the stuff I want through torrent, without the proprietary crap and DRM.
Speaking of torrent and the crack the guy made….too late Apple, too late RIAA, too late you greedy shits out there, the program is in the wild and living well on bittorrent. You can sue this guy all you want, but pandora’s box is opened. And in the meantime, another hacker will come along and improve on the concept or break your next set of balls and chains you impose on joe blow public user.
Reap what ya sow I guess.
So instead of helping the performer, whose music you like since you will steal it, get some income from the sale of his performance, you give them nothing! Because you are mad at the publisher of the work. Remember that the performers did enter into the legal agreement with the record label. Whether it is fair to them or not is not for us to decide. They are adults (since they can sign contracts) and have to live with what they have agreed to. It is not up to us to “punish” a record label for being greedy, if that also punishes the performer. Do a search for Dick Dale on YouTube for a short interview on his advice to musicians wanting to be successful in the music business. I don’t like the pricing on Aston Martins, but that doesn’t give me the right to help myself to one by theft. If you do not wish to pay for a legal version, then you are not automatically entitled to a free one, regardless of how you dress up the logic behind the theft. The misdirection arguments used to justify the theft of someone else’s work (when it comes to music, and movies to an extent as well) is mind boggling. “it’s just information, and information should be free” is one version. Fine. i will be needing your ATM pin number, because it’s just information after all, and information should be free.
You get paid for your work, artists deserve to be paid for theirs’, regardless of your feelings about how their pay is handled. It is their business, and they can be as smart or as dumb as they wish. Now if you stole their music and then sent them a cheque directly, then you would show that you have the courage of your convictions regarding your concern for how they are or aren’t paid fairly. So, have you paid the artists themselves for their product that you have unlawfully consumed? Or are just a pickpocket with a slight gift for wordsmithing?
macaholic
My finger to Cheryl Crow and Metallica, both of which are staunch believers in losing money over this.
However, it is not because of them specifically. It is the thousands of other artists out there who are independant and actually WANT their music distributed online for free, their bread and butter being on the tour scene. I have no problem paying $60 or more for a concert ticket, I’ll get quite a bit more out of the experience than paying $20 for a disk that might have a couple songs on it I like.
Incidently, there are also artists who are locked into contracts with RIAA and its subsidiaries, who are at odds with RIAA and its heavy handed tactics to go after an 11 year old who happened to be first on the long list of so called offenders pushed into litigation. Lars and Cheryl both support this kind of crap. <a > an example of one of the many articles I have read on the subject</a>
So ya, damn rights I feel that way. Looks like they are still far more financially comfortable than I am, in spite of all that lost revenue. My heart bleeds purple piss for them.