Snowcap

Snowcap appears in Ron Conway on Napster, Founder Relationships, and SV Angel’s Crisis Work as Sean Fanning’s post-Napster attempt to fix the digital-music licensing problem that Napster could not resolve. Ron Conway says Fanning wanted to leave Napster on the day of Bertelsmann’s financing to work on a system for distinguishing licensed and unlicensed music, and Conway promised that SV Angel would back the idea later if Fanning stayed.

The company did not fulfill Fanning’s vision, but it gives the source an important second act. Napster revealed consumer demand and legal conflict; Snowcap attempted Digital Music Licensing through registry and compensation infrastructure after the industry relationship had been damaged by Copyright Platform Conflict.

Connections

• Sean Fanning, Ron Conway, SV Angel, and Napster - founding and motivation context.
• Bertelsmann, RIAA, and Digital Music Licensing - licensing and industry-repair context.
• Copyright Platform Conflict and Founder Crisis Mediation - concepts that explain why Snowcap followed Napster.