The History of Song-Pro

     Song-Pro didn't come overnight. Jones was attempting to team with a company known as Prochips.com. The company made an LED Advertising Ball that allowed viewers to read LED Matrix messages. "The problem with the Ad-ball was that it did not come with a controller," Jones said. "It had to be connected to a computer to program the message. I thought it would be better to use a Game Boy as the remote controller, because it had an IR and a serial port." Prochips.com didn't agree to the idea, but allowed Jones to tour the manufacturing line.

     "At the end of the assembly line, there were 32 different MP3 players being produced. They were very small. It could fit in the palm of your hand. I just happened to have a Game Boy in my hand, and that was when the idea came to me. I picked up one of the little MP3 players off the production line and put it next to the Game Boy, and the rest is history."

     As the product was being announced, Nintendo fought against it and the Songboy's use of the gaming system, saying they had no permission to create a device that could be used on the Game Boy. A lawsuit was filed delaying the production of the new units.

     "Most of our would be investors were scared of the Nintendo lawsuit," Jones said. "It was very difficult because the Nintendo lawsuit killed our efforts to raise funds to produce our products on a grand scale. We missed the buying cycles of flash memory and capacitors. We thought that we would raise enough funds to build 8 million units for Christmas 2000 and now we will be lucky if we are able to build 500,000 units."

     Still, Jones doesn't feel any ill will toward Nintendo. "My dream is to become an official Nintendo Licensee. We have nothing but love for Nintendo and wished they would embrace Song-Pro.com's digital multimedia player."

Contine to The Future of Song-Pro

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