I confess, I have a new startup in the works, and it just might be even grander than a popular Internet radio network. I very much hope we’ll finally be unveiling in this first quarter 2008. I’ve had two developers spend many months on it, which for a small business takes a considerable toll on other projects.

I must say there’s a part of me that is ridden with guilt as I largely (though not completely) put new Digitally Imported development aside in pursuing this. I had and still have the gut feeling that it needed to be done as soon as possible. I’ve learned to trust my guy feelings and know that I end up kicking myself later for not trusting them. Why do gut feelings have to be so costly though? Maybe if they’re not costly in the financial or emotional sense then they are simply not worth talking about.

Unfortunately I can’t exactly reveal what the new company is. This is because the idea can be replicated, so quick execution and market domination will be key to success. In fact for these reasons I will soon be seeking funding for an additional kick to launch this with, even though that is not required to launch. The funding and investment part is going to be a whole new game to me, and I am looking forward to immersing myself in that as well.

 It’s a bit of a crazy idea, but maybe I can give you a hint or peak your interest as to what it deals with. This comes from Wikipedia:

Herbert Simon was perhaps the first person to note that many designers of information systems incorrectly represented their design problem as information scarcity rather than attention scarcity, and as a result they built systems that excelled at providing more and more information to people, when what was really needed were systems that excelled at filtering out unimportant or irrelevant information.

In recent years, Simon’s characterization of the problem of information overload as an economic one has become more popular. Business strategists have adopted the term “attention economy” (Davenport & Beck 2001), and some writers have even speculated that “attention transactions” will replace financial transactions as the focus of our economic system.

So I really can’t give away more than this, at least you know it has nothing to do with downloads or music this time.  SoundExchange folks may not have believed me when I told a few of their board members that the royalty situation is discouraging smart, interested people from putting all their available resources into Internet radio ventures. Well it’s true. As much as I love Digitally Imported, I can’t put all my intellectual eggs in the same basket. SoundExchange will loose out more to illegal services since there are dozens or hundreds of people like me. But I digress.

Anyway, I am really itching to tell you all more about it while the pages are starting to look sweeter and more awesome every day. But you’ll just have to wait a little, and who knows, with any luck you’ll actually use the service as well!