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mp3.com Acquired by CNet

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the things-are-getting-interesting dept.

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"."

8 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. Could be worse by jp31415926 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    CNET does a good job with most of their sites. I use download.com almost as much as I use Freshmeat. I look forward to seeing how they handle this baby.

  2. C|net's FUD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I see... So, this was the reason for Cnet to spread FUD about iPod.

  3. Re:Fuck? by GreyWolf3000 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    One thing Michael Robertson wanted to do with mp3.com is provide listeners with an alternative to mainstream garbage. One thing mp3.com has proven is that nobody buys such alternatives consistently.

    As a musician myself, I find this as sad as I find it true.

    --
    Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
  4. In other words, another iTunes competitor by spoot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I know they didn't spell it out, but it's pretty obvious. As Steve Job's said, I'm not sure why anyone would want to get on the bandwagon, it's a losing propisition. Apple is leading everyone in this area, and losing their shirts.

    Anyway, it's kind of sad that they are going away. Honestly, since Vivendi bought the site, it lost most of its charm. I joined mp3.com in the beginning. Posted tons of song. It was a great site for amateur musicians and folks on the fringe. As a songwriter, it was a good place to park tunes and have folks listen to them. But with the purchase by V/U and the limitations (three songs, no pay for play, etc...) the shine quickly faded. Sad to see it go, but I really think that it died a long time ago, just that no one told them to shut off the lights. Gotta make sure I take a screen shot for old time sakes.

    http://mp3.com/jford

  5. Spot the scam... by magiccap22 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    They're keeping all artist's money that have less than $25 in their account at closing. They'll claim that this is because of the administrative costs in paying this money out, but are they going to carry this credit forward into the new system?

    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).

    Rather like Superman II, I bet all these small bits of money add up to a considerable sum...

  6. CNET have all the best domains! by Ianoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    CNET have all the best domains!

    download.com
    news.com
    com.com
    mp3.com
    builder.com

    Any more anyone knows of? They must have damned good renewal services... maybe a million monkeys sitting at a million keyboards pressing the "buy domain" button on each of their sites?

  7. Everything deleted? by blanks · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "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. "

    I guess theirs another player in the music distribution scene, but really, there going to piss off the people that matter the most, the people making the music.

    This will fail, and its because the hundreds of thousands of people who have accounts on mp3.com will not support them after this.

    --
    TruePunk | Games
  8. Just Business by jeddak · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've had material on MP3.com for several years now. Never paid for the service, so I had less to lose than those that took the Gold Membership, etc. But I still don't understand the griping.
    The era of free multimedia serving is over. There's just too much overhead to justify providing that much free bandwidth.
    For those of you who bitching about MP3.com, just accept this unfortunate reality.

    Who's been screwed? OK, maybe the folks that signed up for Gold Membership. But it seems like it's pointless to bitch about what's happened - it's all just business.

    It's not the same as being ripped off by your producer [Beach Boys and countless others], or cheated out of payment by a venue after a performance [an ever-present risk in a business rife with unscrupulous people].

    There's always an element of risk, whatever endeavour you undertake. There's no guarantee that a party with whom you have entered into a contract and paid money for future services will not go out of business, or sell out to another party. That's just a fact of life.

    Fortunately, there are still plenty of free and low-cost music-hosting alternatives [sorry, I haven't checked ALL these links recently, but most should still be good. I am a lazy sod.]:


    AMP3.com
    AmpCast
    Audiogalaxy
    efolk
    etree.org (SHN)
    Listen.com
    Lycos Music Search
    MP3.com
    nzmp3
    peoplesound
    SoundClick
    stationMP3
    gdlive.com
    FurtherNet
    CD Baby
    IUMA
    BeSonic
    My Local Bands
    SoundClick
    VITAMINIC
    archive.org etree listing (SHN's)
    emusic
    listensmart


    My music (if you're curious, totally bored, and looking for something to listen to).