MP3.COM to close

Subject: Obit: MP3.COM to close
From: Willie-O
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 07:57 AM

Rather suddenly, mp3.com has announced that it will be killing off its site that has hosted music of several hundred thousand artists, including me. CNET, which owns mp3.com now, has other plans for the URL, and will be shutting it down as of Dec. 2, and destroying all the files on their servers.

Mp3.com CD's will only be available for online ordering until this Monday Nov 17.

At least this seems to be authentic info, although there is no hint of it on the mp3.com home page. It was e-mailed to all mp3.com artists.

Not a big surprise, anyway they've lost a lot of goodwill since they clarified their financial strategy to be one of squeezing every possible nickel out of their artists, who I'm sure are their primary revenue source (as opposed to listeners/consumers). Just as well that that model didn't fly, I guess. It's a funny old world when people don't want to pay to hear music but lots will pay to have their music heard...

Well, I'm looking for a new Internet site and a source of opaque white tape for my business cards....

Willie-O
still at www.mp3.com/billcameron to the bitter end.

p.s. go ahead and order it if you want, but I won't see a penny from online CD sales--like the vast majority of mp3.com artists, I am under the wire on earnings--they won't issue a cheque for less than $25. I'll order a few more but that'll be the end. On to the next recording project...

Subject: RE: Obit: MP3.COM to close
From: hesperis
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 10:31 AM

CD Baby is really good. About all I can recommend is for people to burn their own cds and put them up at CD Baby. I've tried most of the other mp3 sites, and most either didn't have the listeners, or moved to an artist-squeezing business model, or both.

I'm really glad that I got out of mp3.com several years ago when it first stopped caring about the artists.

Subject: RE: MP3.COM to close
From: Dreadnought
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 12:26 PM

This link might help flesh the background of this story...

http://212.100.234.54/content/7/34009.html

Subject: RE: MP3.COM to close
From: Willie-O
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 05:44 PM

Thanks, Dreadnought. I wonder what DRM is...but that guy has a sense of humour. I'm still not sure how the other outfit that already bought mp3.com fits into this--the major label Vivendi/Universal. If you look at the mp3.com homepage now though, it's basically a promo page for (I have no doubt) some of their best artists. Not to mention the highly artistic "choose your hottest Brittney pic" contest. There's a little corner mentioning "mp3.com independent artists". And a scintillating poll asking "who has had the most farewell tours? Cher? Ozzy? The Who (gives a shit?)

So I'm not entirely clear on what the straight news story is: Vivendi/Universal bought the business and then sold the URL to CNET? That strikes me as an incredibly "duh" move on V/U's part--at least mp3.com has name recognition, who the hell is going to look for "Vivendi Universal.com"? Maybe they have a cashflow problem--or listened to the trend-charts (like the Wired Hot/Not list) that said the mp3.com URL wasn't hip anymore.

But I'm not bitter. Anybody want a good deal on some slightly used business cards? They're blank on one side...

W-O

Subject: RE: MP3.COM to close
From: Willie-O
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 05:53 PM

There's the rub, really. I like to hang onto things. I've had the same e-mail address for eight years, the hundred spams a day are annoying but so would changing all my contact info. Hesperis I'm glad you're having a good experience with CDBaby, but rumour has it they're not doing terribly well either...like most of the other sites that are trying to be the indy music portal. Ampcast.com seems poised to inherit a lot of mp3.com artists, but they charge $75US/yr, which is at least more honest than promising the moon for nothing.   

I'm kind of amused that the prefix "OBIT" was removed from the thread title--apparently I was being too frivolous.

W-O

Subject: RE: MP3.COM to close
From: Marion
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 05:56 PM

Hi Willie-san. Katlaughing suggested this site to me to put up songs: IUMA. I haven't looked it over yet, but there it is.

Marion

Question: if people try to download a bunch of music now before MP3 closes, does that cost the artists, or benefit them, or neither?

Subject: RE: MP3.COM to close
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 06:32 PM

MP3.com seemed like a wonderful idea, but it soon became a nuisance. It sent me far more e-mail that I could ever bear to read, so I finally just blocked all its communications.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: MP3.COM to close
From: Dreadnought
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 07:20 PM

Not that it really matters but DRM stands for "Digital Rights Management". As I understand it it broadly covers the attempts by record labels to "sign" downloaded music thereby protecting the material from unauthorised copying. So now you know!

Subject: RE: MP3.COM to close
From: simon-pierre
Date: 15 Nov 03 - 08:02 PM

By the way Willie-O, Vivendi Universal *do have* a major cashflow problem :-). I think they have a problem in general... They sold all their publishing labels in France, which was 40% of the global market, and one of their most profitable segment (in percentage - it still appeared to them as minor).

Subject: RE: MP3.COM to close
From: Willie-O
Date: 16 Nov 03 - 05:26 PM

Hmm. The picture emerges...

Go ahead and download whatever you can get--everything posted there is made available free (or not) at the discretion of the artist, there is no effect on our earnings.
That's what was originally great about mp3.com.

They had a program for a year or so where they actually paid us a small royalty on downloads--but that was cancelled long ago. For awhile it approximately covered my $20 US/month cost of being a "premium artist"--which I discontinued last year.

If you buy a CD now, I'm not sure who gets the money--Vivendi, CNET or what--but it ain't me.



Thanks for the info simon-p. Obviously the company's pretty desperate if they're trading such important revenue sources for fast cash.

W-O