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mp3.com Acquired by CNet
bmarklein writes "Looks like mp3.com is no more, at least not in its current form. According to an announcement on an mp3.com message board, CNet has acquired assets of mp3.com. The statement is very vague, but it says that following the redirection of the mp3.com domain on December 2nd, "all content will be deleted from [mp3.com's] servers." However they do plan to eventually introduce "new and enhanced artist services"."
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5102324-1.html
That's the FUD he's talking about--the bullshit "review" from two weeks ago. You remember: "C|net presents the 5 most obvious things that could be wrong with any handheld electronic device."
You mean something like MagnaTune that was linked some time ago on Slashdot?
Their moto: "We're a record label. But we're not evil."
^_^
Looks like mp3.com is no more, at least not in it's current form.
That happened a couple of years ago with the Preium Services killing the free service - now I just use garageband.com
I was registered at the site, though never a paid user. This email was sent last night at about 9:00 pm CST.
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MP3.com Announcement
CNET Networks, Inc announced today that it has acquired certain assets of MP3.com, Inc.
Please be advised that on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 at 12:00 PM PST the MP3.com website will no longer be accessible in its current form.
CNET Networks, Inc. plans to introduce a new MP3 music service in the near future. If you would like to receive email updates on this service, including an invitation to a special members-only preview, please sign up here.
MP3.com is not transferring your personal information to CNET Networks, Inc. or any other third party.
On behalf of all of us at MP3.com we thank you for your patronage and continued support. It has been a privilege to host one of the largest and most diverse collections of music in the world. MP3.com wishes to express its sincere thanks to each of you for making us your premier destination for music online.
Sincerely,
MP3.com
P.S. Remember that to receive email updates about CNET's new MP3 service and an invite to the members-only preview, you should sign up here today.
How about:
archive.org/audio
While it's primarily a Live Music Archive, and they specialize in live music, you might be successful in getting your stuff hosted there.
I've a friend who is (was?) one of the few remaining employees at MP3.com and he told me that the CNet move was looking pretty damn good. Apparently the CNet guys have a really good attitude toward Internet distribution of music, and a lot of stuff is probably in the works. Supposedly they have a surprise or two up their sleeve that will put a little twist on the whole iTunes music store content. He also said that you would be amazed at the number of people with money in their accounts that mp3.com has no contact info for! Pretty interesting stuff...
-JT
Well you could try the Internet Underground Music Archive http://www.iuma.com/ ... it's been around longer than MP3.com I believe, just does not have the mindshare.
The expectation, of course, is that CNET will unveil their own online music store. But--how will they do this with MP3s? If they use some other format for the DRM, won't that make the domain name kind of ridiculous?
"Go to MP3.com to spend a buck a piece on WMA!"?
--
$tar -xvf
I'm signed up as an artist (and have one crappy mp3 of my own creation up there) and recieved a longer more detailed automated mail
--
CNET Networks, Inc announced today that it has acquired certain assets of MP3.com, Inc.
Please be advised that on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 at 12:00 PM PST the MP3.com website will no longer be accessible in its current form.
Following a transition period, CNET Networks, Inc. plans to introduce new and enhanced artist services. If you would like to receive email updates on these new services and notification when they are available, as well as an invitation to their special artists-only preview, please sign up here.
Your personal information, music, images, related content or other information will not be transferred to CNET Networks, Inc. or any other third party.
MP3.com's content administration tools will remain available until the site is redirected on December 2, 2003. Please note, however, that promptly following the removal of the MP3.com website, all content will be deleted from our servers and all previously submitted tapes, CD-ROMs and other media in our possession will be destroyed. We recommend that you make alternative content hosting arrangements as soon as practicable.
Please remember to update or remove all links and references to the URL www.mp3.com. Additionally if you would like a historical record of your page, we recommend that you capture screen shots of the page as well as your artist statistics pages since they will no longer be available once the site goes offline.
MP3.com stopped collecting monthly fees for Gold and Platinum Artist Service subscriptions as of November 3, 2003. For any monthly Gold or Platinum Artist Service subscription fees MP3.com received during the period beginning October 13, 2003 and ending November 2, 2003, MP3.com will be issuing a refund that will be prorated to reflect a termination of the subscription as of November 2, 2003. For any previously paid annual Gold and Platinum subscription fees MP3.com has received during 2003, MP3.com will be issuing a refund that will be prorated to reflect a termination of the subscription as of November 2, 2003. Any artists who subscribed to the Platinum or Gold Artist Service after November 2, 2003 will receive a full refund of any fees paid.
If you subscribe to any other MP3.com services, you will receive separate email messages with specific information about refunds and service availability.
Participants in the truSONIC Business Music Service program will be receiving an email update about the process for their continued participation in that program.
All content uploads will cease immediately. Approvals of previously uploaded content will continue through Friday, November 14, 2003.
CDs will be available for purchase through Monday, November 17, 2003 at 12:00 PM PST.
MP3.com will perform a final artist accounting and check distribution on or around December 1, 2003. Any artist account with a balance of at least $25.00 will qualify to receive a payment in the final artist accounting (reduced from the usual requirement of $50.00). Payment of CD royalties will be included in the final artist accounting. If you anticipate a payment, please verify and update your artist account and contact information no later than November 20, 2003. Click here for help updating your contact information.
Please be sure to check the Sophie message board and System Service Report (SSR) for further updates.
On behalf of all of us at MP3.com we thank you for your patronage and continued support. It has been a privilege to host one of the largest and most diverse collections of music in the world. MP3.com wishes to express its sincere thanks to each of you for making our website an important part of your musical journey. We wish you continued success.
Sincerely,
MP3.com
P.S. Remember that in order to receive email updates on CNET's new artist services, you should sign up here today.
Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit!
Right-click on "Listen to All Tracks: Hi-fi Play" for the artist you're interested in (actually listen to something first so they set the cookies and stuff - no need for a real e-mail address, I used one that bounces), save the .m3u file somewhere, and
../$b.m3u ) && touch $b/done; done
wget -i whatever.m3u
or to preserve artist names as subdirectories (as I did, since they're not always very good at ID3-tagging their content)
for f in *.m3u; do b=`echo $f | sed -e s,\\.m3u,,`; mkdir -p $b && ( cd $b && wget -i
I don't believe CNet aquiring anything is good news. Shopper.com is a perfect example.
Once upon a time, about 3 and a half years ago, there was a site called Killer App. This was a site that listed computer products and reseller prices. That is fairly standard fare, but beyond that it also allowed you to filter products. For example, if you were looking for a motherboard you could specifically select Socket 7 with 3 ISA and 4 PCI slots and both AT and ATX power connectors. This feature rocked. What's more, I think they also linked to product reviews. AND prices were manually entered by the resellers. No bots to screw things up and list the wrong price for the wrong product. It was informative. It was accurate. It was awesome.
And then, CNet aquired it. Almost immediately the site stopped updating. Several hot new products were released, but never appeared in Killer App's listings. Killer App rapidly became out of date and useless. But it wasn't over yet. Within a matter of months, if not weeks, it vanished completely. Killapp.com was now redirected to shopper.com. And today, when I checked out the killerapp.com domain, it no longer even goes to shopper.com. One of the greatest sites I have ever found on the internet is dead for good, all thanks to CNet.
Ever since the day killerapp.com redirected to shopper.com, I have boycotted CNet. They destroyed a wonderful site. I would never trust them to do something good with a site they "aquired."
Ah, that post made me laugh. You used to be able to load a lot of songs to mp3.com, and as they were downloaded mp3 was supposed to pay the artist. Later, they cut everyone down to 3 free songs. That's also when they changed how the CDs look. It used to be they'd use the cover you supplied, but now you need to give them money so they'll use your cover. They've never paid my band royalties for the songs. They've never paid us for the cds that have been bought.
They also started changing how much they owed you. The number would fluctuate. I'd ask "Uh, where's our money and why does the amount keep changing" they'd respond "Your question will be answered in 4-6 business days". But they never were. I sent in a question once a month for a year until they started saying you had to pay them so they'd answer your questions. So I'm supposed to pay them to answer my question about where my money is? And you can't trade the money they owe you to buy other products they sell.
I put the songs up on another site for free, and changed the description on the first song on mp3 saying "Hey, go here and download all our songs for free". Dumb mp3 site.
mp3 has always been a crappy company as far as I'm concerned. It seemed like a neat idea at first, but they suck.
riding round the world on an old motorcycle