Why Listen.app was shut down - a message from Gracenote rep. Stephen White

[wildonrio]

Here's what he had to say:

Hello Listen.app users,
My name is Stephen White and I am the VP of Product and Content Management at Gracenote. I wanted to respond to some of the thoughtful posts here and make sure there is no confusion around the Gracenote Mobile MusicID solution that is the underlying technology and service being used by the application.
First of all we commend Erica for her application. It is a great application that brings functionality to the iPhone that clearly you as end users would like to have. Our Partner Sony Ericsson has been at the forefront of integrating this type of functionality and has integrated the results into their store, and into recommendations. Their implementation provides many of the functions you have asked for in your comments here and I urge you all to check out their handsets.
Apple is also a Gracenote partner and has the opportunity to integrate this feature into their iPhone platform. We cannot comment on their plans but we urge you to let them know that you would like this feature.
Gracenote’s Mobile MusicID service can be deployed in many ways with many supporting business models. In the case of Sony Ericsson they integrate the feature into the handset and make the feature available free of additional charge to end users. As Erica points out AT&T also makes the feature available on a pay per use model at $1.00 per call. As a business-to-business provider Gracenote does not condone nor dictate the business model our customers decide to deploy.
We are happy you all like the product and are hopeful we can find a way to make it available to you in the near future. If you have any questions I’d be happy to answer them.
Thanks,
Stephen

Here's a link to the quote posted on Erica Sadun's website.



So in conclusion, it looks like this is something that Apple is going to produce in the future and most likely charge us for. The app was cool enough that I would be willing to pay a one time fee or a very low monthly fee. What do you guys think?

[KNK]

Well lets hope apple will bring it back for at least a one time charge. Uh how many weeks do we have to go for the SDK and 1.1.4???

[mflantin]

Well I gotta admit, I really fell in love with the program. This is probably one of the coolest apps that I used on my iPhone that really impressed me. However, I'm not sure I'd be willing to use it if I had to pay a fee. I can see it coming in handy every now and then, like if you hear a song on the radio and want to know what it is, but when you think about it, everything you listen to on the radio becomes so mainstream that you're bound to find the name for it sooner or later. Maybe I'm a cheapo and got used to all these free apps, I just don't like the idea of having to pay more money to use a not so useful, but pretty cool app.

[acosmichippo]

i'll find my own music, thank you...

[jimmy_hat]

Ahh that's lame. Shazam charges fortunes for exactly the same thing. I really don't like paying to know what song it is I'm listening to.

[iphoneconnie]

It was a fun app to play around with but I wouldn't pay for it if Apple charged me for it.

[Zabumafu]

Is there any other way she could do it with another music identification source? I know there is more than one and many are free I had it on my old phone.