Ooops. We lost the music MP3.com is gone.
In this article, I learned today that MP3.com, the historical attempt to expose the world to the music of independent music creators, is gone.
A little history. MP3.com was originally designed as an online collection where anyone with an Internet connection, and the capacity to make music, could upload their tunes.
This is important, because as we all know, we hear most new music from the radio, which is tightly controlled by a complex relationship between the recording industry watchdogs and radio, which is now mostly owned by one company, ClearChannel. So if you're an artist wanting people to even hear your stuff, let alone make money from it, this was great!
Unfortunately, MP3.com launched another product which IMHO should have been legal, that is, a service to let people keep an online version of their own CD's. Rather than ripping them and then transmitting to their servers (a risky approach), they simply did the copying themselves, and required that a user put in their own CD to verify ownership. Granted, a user could have easily put in a copied version, but still. They'd have had to get it from someone who owned it. Anyways, the RIAA sued them in 1999 and won. Suddenly the creator of MP3.com joined the anti-piracy crusade (presumably as part of the settlement) and did little to protect the original purpose of the site. One of the Big Four picked up the pieces (Vivendi, I think).
Now a few years later, MP3.com lay in financial ruin (from the lawsuit) and was about to collapse. CNET bought what was left (the brand name and company) but somehow the content was simply shutdown and lost. (I have a hard time believing that NO tape backups were ever conducted over the years...) This, despite the original creators attempts to get it housed somewhere else. There were several entities willing to hold the collection, but it was too late.
I am wondering... will the artists (who presumably have their own copies) resubmit them to one of these hosts? It would take a lot of work to rebuild a database, website, etc.
But it could be done.
In this article, I learned today that MP3.com, the historical attempt to expose the world to the music of independent music creators, is gone.
A little history. MP3.com was originally designed as an online collection where anyone with an Internet connection, and the capacity to make music, could upload their tunes.
This is important, because as we all know, we hear most new music from the radio, which is tightly controlled by a complex relationship between the recording industry watchdogs and radio, which is now mostly owned by one company, ClearChannel. So if you're an artist wanting people to even hear your stuff, let alone make money from it, this was great!
Unfortunately, MP3.com launched another product which IMHO should have been legal, that is, a service to let people keep an online version of their own CD's. Rather than ripping them and then transmitting to their servers (a risky approach), they simply did the copying themselves, and required that a user put in their own CD to verify ownership. Granted, a user could have easily put in a copied version, but still. They'd have had to get it from someone who owned it. Anyways, the RIAA sued them in 1999 and won. Suddenly the creator of MP3.com joined the anti-piracy crusade (presumably as part of the settlement) and did little to protect the original purpose of the site. One of the Big Four picked up the pieces (Vivendi, I think).
Now a few years later, MP3.com lay in financial ruin (from the lawsuit) and was about to collapse. CNET bought what was left (the brand name and company) but somehow the content was simply shutdown and lost. (I have a hard time believing that NO tape backups were ever conducted over the years...) This, despite the original creators attempts to get it housed somewhere else. There were several entities willing to hold the collection, but it was too late.
I am wondering... will the artists (who presumably have their own copies) resubmit them to one of these hosts? It would take a lot of work to rebuild a database, website, etc.
But it could be done.
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