NiceMac Grounds StarPlayer Project
When it was rumored that the NiceMac application to allow iPhone users to listen to Sirius XM radio was not approved people began to wonder. Then the rumor of Sirius XM getting ready to launch an application of their own came out, and the writing was on the wall. The StarPlayer Project would be shelved. Today, the folks at NiceMac confirmed the news with this note:
Sunday, 08 March 2009 04:01
To all of our fans and customers:
“NiceMac has decided it is in our best interests to discontinue the StarPlayr project. NiceMac will be issuing refunds for purchasers of StarPlayr for Windows Mobile on a first come first serve basis until corporate funds have been exhausted.
To request a refund simply copy and paste your StarPlayr for Windows Mobile PayPal receipt via the Contact us Email form.
We would all like to thank you for your support, kind words, understanding and patience throughout. We deeply apologize for the inconvenience.
Sincerely,
The NiceMac Team
p.s.
This has been the greatest privilege and honor working with this fantastic NiceMac team. Never in my wildest dreams we would have accomplished so much together. In my book, you are all heroes. Good luck in your future endeavors and enjoy the success in everything you do. I hold your programming abilities and entrepreneurial spirit to the highest regard. It is with much sadness to let this project go. You may be asking yourself why and the answer is there simply weren’t enough bottles of super glue to put our starship back together.
Sincerely, goodtime
In my opinion, the fall of the StarPlayer Project is a sad situation. The merger promised more open access, but in the end, the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of this project was dampened by corporate giants. The creators of StarPlayer paved the way for a great application to be a part of satellite radio. They saw a need and responded to it with vigor. They were pioneers who fell victim to bigger players seeing all of the hoopla and deciding to enter the arena. Why did StarPlayer have to be killed off? What is wrong with several applications being developed, and letting the marketplace determine the victor?
So many ideas with satellite radio were born from passionate fans and investors. There have been dozens of people who had a glimmer in their eye, and proceeded to act on it only to have the flame extinguished. Over the years, I have seen the little guy trampled more than once, and it is frustrating to see it happen again.
Will the new Sirius XM application be great? Yes, it probably will. I just wish that this talented young group at NiceMac had a chance to reap the benefits of their hard work.
Position – Long Sirius XM Radio
I already miss starplayr. It is way better than the stream that the sirius website provides. Also, having it for WinMo is AMAZING.
They were ready to rock n roll.
How long will it take for SiriusXM to come out with their version?
vaporgold
You would they would announce this on the conference call.
Charles I sure hope your moles aren’t blind. We need something asap. Any update?
While it may look like these developers are getting the shaft, it’s possible Sirius XM made it worth their while to simply go away. Maybe it truly was in NiceMac’s “best interest” to close up shop. Their silence on specifics makes me think they’re not too upset with the situation. That’s my take, anyway. Sirius XM knows they need to take charge of their internet presence and in this situation I think for them to have “official” mobile and desktop applications gives them much more credibility than to leave it to a third party.
Tyler,
I really believe the guys got paid off to scuttle their project or turn over what they had to Sirius… something, but I’ll bet it involved money and for them to keep their mouth shut.
Here is what nicemac writes on the first line of his release “NiceMac has decided it is in our best interests to discontinue the StarPlayr project.” Nothing else other than some public thanks and refund policy. If they had gotten screwed, they damn sure would have been talking about it instead of tucking their tail and going away with barely a wimper. I could be wrong, but until the nicemac guy comes on here as says he got royally screwed on this deal, I’ll be sticking with my theory.
I thought that same thing. Seems they are going away too quietly.
They have no choice but to go quietly. This is straight from the sirius terms of service:
4. SIRIUS Internet Radio: You may not rebroadcast SIRIUS Internet Radio in any way. You may play SIRIUS Internet Radio through speakers or headphones for your personal listening pleasure. You may not make any recordings of, or otherwise duplicate, the content provided by SIRIUS Internet Radio. In addition, you may not re-transmit or otherwise distribute the content provided by SIRIUS Internet Radio in any way, including online streaming such content or making such content available for download. You may not re-skin, re-package, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble SIRIUS Internet Radio, or construct a media player or interface that accesses SIRIUS Internet Radio. In addition, your use of any products or services that access SIRIUS Internet Radio and are provided by third parties not authorized by SIRIUS constitutes a violation of these Terms, even if you did not create such product or services and/or do not understand how they were created.
SAID, I thought……………let it be, hope they got their’s, but let’s get Ours Going !?!
Position – Long Sirius XM Radio
Has the company ever addressed this issue? Has the company ever posted projected revenue generation from this technology?
As to your thoughts on the NICEMAC group. First if you feel they deserved better than I’m guessing they do. Second. I’ve seen this kind of transaction fail miserable. Why? The next thing you know they are working with a competitor, say Slacker to enable a similar concept. And generally they are now ten times more motivated than the first time, to even the score with the suitor that left them at the alter.
In My Not humble opinion.
For the record, NiceMac has not received any money from Sirius XM, nor does it possess any stock in SIRI.
Well, there you have it. Kind of.
Then tell us why it was in your best interest to stop the app? Did they hold a gun to your head? Did they threaten a patent law suit against you? You just don’t walk away from a project of this magnitude. Tell us the truth.
Yup, more too it than simply closing up shop. I’ll reserve feeling sorry for the guys until all the details come out.
NiceMac is being professional, considerate and appropriate to all parties involved.
Our company has a good image and in the near future we wish to continue into other areas of entertainment.
We are leaving satellite radio behind to pursue other endeavors.
This line from the ToS is why it’s in their best interest.
You may not re-skin, re-package, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble SIRIUS Internet Radio, or construct a media player or interface that accesses SIRIUS Internet Radio.
Hey NiceMac LLC. Good luck to you guys!
>>>For the record, NiceMac has not received any money from Sirius XM, nor does it possess any stock in SIRI.<<<
IS this statement still true if the bold is included?
…has not received AND WILL NOT RECEIVE any money from Sirius XM…..
Don’t be a slacker. Be a starplayer.
The door is always open for future business.
The starplayr was a great application and i am dissapointed that its no longer available.
What do you think they mean by “not enough tubes of super glue to put it back together”
Sounds like maybe they didn’t have the lawyers to deal with sirius recently? Or has Sirius Xm made some major technology changes that they couldn’t reconfigure the player?
Their player was far superior. I hope Sirius XM handles this by taking care of them or signing them up to help “officially”. Scrapping the project is a sure downer.
We gave it our best shot and proved ourselves, but were dealt a bad deck. Maybe next time the cards will be in our favor.
This has been in incredible journey and NiceMac was willing to stick this out for a long as possible, but unfortunately we all (eventually) saw the writing on the wall.
I am still amazed that four guys out of the entire world came together to do something for the greater good. That alone is quite an accomplishment.
StarPlayr started out on the Mac as a 100% AppleScript Studio application and become very popular. Later it was the idea was re-programmed and moved to 3 other platforms.
StarPlayr was originally designed to be an interactive player with a great visual look and feel.
We are still proud of what we accomplished and even without pay, we still consider our team to be successful. NiceMac hopes to continue this creative spirit and continue to product excellent applications in the future.
See you again soon in a whole new arena.
Sincerely,
Todd Bruss
NiceMac LLC
General Manager
when is sirius xm coming out with their app?????????
Something ‘BIG’ was supposed to be coming last week, as far as I remember having gotten in an emailing from SiriusXM………never saw it………..!!!
I received the same email. I called IR last week and they knew nothing about the email. It was probably bogus.
I received the email in my yahoo email account and to my email that is attached to my Sirius account. That should be suspicious by itself.
Sorry…should read NOT to my Sirius email account.
all of their promotional deals were called “BIG” if you went to the shopping page of their sites. that was the big thing that came.
also the three ways to listen in case you missed it were News, talk and music.
Clearly the NiceMac guys are under some form of a gag order. They are not dissing Sirius XM or Apple and giving no details to the apparent “cease and desist”. The brevity of information certainly asks many questions. Removal of the Windows Mobile app also points to legal action.
Who knows, they may be selling their iPhone application (or parts of it) to Sirius XM and a stipulation is “no details may be given to the public at this time”.
Let’s hope these great guys at NiceMac get their just rewards. Take care of them Sirius XM! It’s in your best interest.
And are all Sirius XM players under legal scrutiny? Did Rogue Amoeba get permission from Sirius XM for their Pulsar player for the Mac? Will that be pulled off the market as well??
As a naive and long time investor, I am amazed and at the same time embarrassed/saddened that I have kept my money here in such large amounts and for and so long when every time I Google any of the aftermarket apps. or music sites I read about here, i.e.
Starplyr, Rouge Amoeba, Slacker…..etc, etc. I find all these wonderful sites and apps, and I wonder What the F…. and no WONDER I/We’re LOSING OUR DOUGH!!
No one at the Helm ever thought This Just May be VIP, or at the least would’ve lent us an edge in these vicious markets and competitive environs!!??………….For Crying Out Loud Here!!!! And the only A.H. here was myself, and anyone else who didn’t do their due diligence, or chose to ignore ‘the warning signs’…………….As Conan would say, “CROM”………..What is hell is this that I’ve found myself trapped in now !!!
Sorry, but jus a moment of despair………..I’m embarrassed almost …………….;)
I hope when the details come out, Siri doesn’t look like the big bad corporate a-hole squashing a grassroots start up. That can’t be good.
Also people seem to be focused on the “Iphone app” what we should be demanding is a whole mobile OS platform. Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Google Android, and Iphone all need to be addressed. No pop in price today, I guess its same-old-same-old from siri stock, hopefully the company will surprise us on the conference call. Good luck…
That is my point. Sirius has interest in Starplyr for all of the mobile Apps… iPhone, WinMob, etc. If they wanted to get pay back on their time, they could have done so with the Cydia Store.
Getting paid wasn’t the problem.
Doing it legitimately was.
If they were denied from the App Store, why wouldn’t they use the new Cydia store to get this out? I think Sirius has purchased a new App for the App Store.
Just my opinion…..
They wont release on cydia because they were paying to transcode the stream to ipod/iphone format, and that cost them money, that why the app was $13 dollars. Besides out of the 11mill + iphone users i doubt more the 100k jailbrea
This is 100% untrue. Our solution does not/did not transcode. Our servers never ever touched the streams in any way.
3 years x 4 developers + costs = price
Sirius XM has not purchased StarPlayr. For one, NiceMac LLC still owns the trademark to StarPlayr. The original programmers individually own the rights to the source code. Only the about screen screenshots were copyrighted by NiceMac LLC.
Oooo that’s a bit tricky IMHO. Don’t you know Steve Jobs thinks he still owns your iphone even after you bought it? I’m guessing cydia is instore for some future law suits, as it only works on hacked phones.
NOTE: This only works on jailbroken phones, see our 3G Jailkbreak Tutorials for Mac Users & Windows Users.
The fact is only Sirius XM has the right to create their own player. Their terms and conditions make it clear in black and white without any wiggle room. I would presume that Sirius XM will start cracking down on players that are not endorsed or licensed by them.
For what it’s worth best of luck and I hope the development of that app gets you guys something down the road. Sucks to see innovation crushed right on the eve of release like that. I don’t know if I could have taken the high road like ya’ll did.
‘Not Enough Crazy Glue’=$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!
Hmmm, OK NiceMac. I guess my question would be then with the terms and conditions so clearly in black and white without any wiggle room, why on earth would you spend 3 years developing this app? Obviously a gamble with the end state being some kind of positive outcome like someone buying the app maybe? Who knows.
Either way, I sincerely wish you guys good luck in all your future endeavors.
Methinks, maybe, they didn’t see the fine print till Kaz, Malone, and Job’s army of litigation attornies MAGNIFIED the print right in their face, I fear.
Remember every one is feeling the financial pinch, and looking to save or make some ‘Moolah’ !!
The terms and conditions were expanded over time, nor were they enforced for many.
Our company has been following the ToS edits for the past 12 months.
All I can gather is NiceMac was the most popular and well known third party software player. We were also probably the most dangerous as we had a working iPhone application.
NiceMac,
Thanks for all your answers today. Seems to clear it up and I find myself agreeing with what Tyler said in the article.
If you guys really got nothing out of this deal and it was SiriusXM that gave you a cease and desist, that really is a raw deal. Like Tyler says, who cares if there are multiple players. Let the market decide.
Of course the flip side of that is that “maybe” they want to tie in a release of their own player with some kind of big promotion to start building more brand recognition. In that case from an investor point of view, I have to side with SiriusXM.
Once again, good luck.
If you knew this beforehand, why would you waste your time, effort and I presume a lot of money to create the StarPlayr? I am sure you guys looked into the legality side first. You were threatened with a lawsuit is the only answer. Not that it matters at this point. You guys did a great job. I used the StarPlayr on my desktop over the Sirius player.
Not that it helps, but I canceled my subscription yesterday because they killed you guys 🙁
If Sirius DID purchase Starplyr, they would need time to make sure the App is 100% Sirius along with all the Purchase links, Album Art links, & Servers. I guess time will tell.
If that were true, we would have taken our sites down completely and the Sirius XM branded version would be out already.
sirius was probably like give us the app and we won’t sue……….ok here you go sorry
Probably……………………And?
If they were wrong……………at least they recover ‘price+interest’ for the doing the leg work that Sirius should have done all along !!
Gents,
WHO CARES ABOUT NICEMAC?!?!?!? Have the NiceMac folks been through the nerve wracking roller coaster ride that we have? It’s our time to be greedy and get the good news and pps that we have coming, damnit.
Sorry for the folks at NiceMac, but I’m invested in SIRIUS….
Cheers,
-Whynot
Why Not Indeed !!!
We fully understand what Sirius investors are going through, but please understand that NiceMac went through an extremely stressful time as well.
From reading your responses today, again I say good luck to you. Your ability to stay on the board and converse with the various posts, bodes well for your future.
As to why people “Invent”, without a financial guarantor up front? Many, many startups follow exactly the same business model. Entrepreneurs are what have built this great country. Imagine the guys at Stanford declining to develop the worlds next generation of communication. The internet. Simply because they wanted a deal before the product was developed.
Hope you all get whatever it is you are looking for. U2.
Thank you.
I hope you guys at NiceMac become very successful in the near future. Thanks for trying to bring a product that was marketable and could produce revenue for SiriusXM.
How long before SiriusXM comes out with their product? months ? years?..any ideas?
vaporgold
One word – CYDIA..
Please give us a chance to test this app. I think if not, release the source to someone who can mod it and add it to cydia.
That is not going to be possible. Sorry.
Does anyone have any real confirmation that Sirius is coming out with their own player? For all we know there never will be an app for Sirius.
AT&T sure doesn’t want endless streaming from hundreds of thousands of users bogging down their bandwidth 8 hours a day.
Sirius doesn’t want it as it kills off sales of Hardware they provide!
All I can see is us the clients HOPING for something like this because it can be done.
Sirius has a lot of problems right now and worrying about an iPhone app is low on the priority regardless of what we hope for!
I sure Hope I’m wrong but tired of looking each AM and seeing nothing..
Glenn…
You could be right.The other reason SiriusXM may not have anything in the works is that it might produce profit.
vaporgold
I would like to receive a refund for the Windows Mobile StarPlayr I purchased that I was so upset to find out no longer worked today. I was unable to contact anyone at the website. Does anyone know where I can contact these fellows? I am as broke as I assume they are now. Please help anyone if you can. Thanks again.