<i>"Why would you want to start a data-driven startup?"</i><p>In our case (<a href="http://timetric.com" rel="nofollow">http://timetric.com</a>) - it was at least in part due to having spent several years beavering away trying to build products for the management of scientific data, before discovering that outside of science:<p>a) there's lots of other interesting data can benefit from better management<p>b) people will pay for it :-)<p>The article's a very good overview of lots of the issues we've faced in building a business around data.
To present an alternative viewpoint on this matter, I would say for people looking to start data-driven startups to first think about your application. What do you want to make? Then think about how you can glean information from the normal usage of that product.<p>For example, I think its much more risky to think "hmm, what datasets are out there and how can I build a business off of them?" than "hmm, what business do I want to create, and can I monetize through data acquisition?"<p>In the first case, you are going to be held to the availability of someone else's data. You don't know how it was collected, and you have no idea how it could have been doctored. In the second case, you create your business with a data-driven mindset, and you control all those parameters yourself. Then you are just at the mercy of how well your data reporting tools are working.
I'm looking to collect or download a dataset for music consisting of info such as artist/album/song. Any idea where to grab this from? There used to be a list hosted on Google around 2 yrs ago but I can't find anymore.
<i>[...] the unglamourous quest to get the data to a point where [...]</i><p>That, and once there are results, carting them back into the 'production line' and plugging them where they'll do any good.<p>Logistics.