MP3.com is now owned by CNET

[eclectica]

MP3.com was founded in 1998. It was started as an opportunity for independent artists to compete with major record labels. That changed in 2001 when ownership was transferred to a major record label, Vivendi Universal, which is an RIAA member. Now the company that is continuing their original mission, and offers hopes for independent artists, is DMusic (http://www.dmusic.com/).

CNET has acquired MP3.com from Vivendi Universal. Here is an excerpt of the official announcement (http://msg.mp3.com/artistforums/liststory/?topic_id=164614) from MP3.com's site:
Important MP3.com Announcement
SOPHIE MP3
Nov 13, 2003 at 17:44:13

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 (http://mp3.cnet.com/artist.html).

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.

[eclectica]

Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org) has made the offer to Vivendi Universal to take in all of the music scheduled for deletion on December 2. Its founder Brewster Kahle said: "There's no amount of material that frightens us. MP3.com's collection is five terabytes. No sweat. We've been adding forty terabytes a month."

The fact that Vivendi Universal was willing to delete it all shows how much respect they have for the artistic works. Because there was no profit to be made from it, they would have thrown it all into the garbage.

[assorted]

i just want to add my 2 cents that i think dmusic sucks gigantic ass.

they were great when mp3s first came out, one of the best sites, and then they just began sucking more and more and more. i assumed it was because the guy was desperately trying to make money but who knows. all i know is they went from being a trusted source to being something i occasionally checked to being something i abandoned all together.

[Criminal_Sniper]

nobody give a fuck about ur 2 cents
dosent seems its worth 2 cents
let me put my 10 cents in

dmusic is awesome!

i dont buy it i dont have any cash on a credit card to pay for it (must get one of those)

but this band woodhead ive downloaded a few tracks and they are awesome

how can u say it is crap?

compared to cheap ass leeching off kazaa

i dont mind paying for things

but not when the artists get under 5% of the profits and they have no right to own their OWN music

i dont think u are up to date on anything....

i will continue to dl music from the net cause we shouldnt be paying this much for it

they have even been busted for price fixing

this bitch had the small pea sized balls to complain at an independant!
they are musics future

u think the riaa is going to win?

if someone patented putting sand in bags and drawing faces on it would it be legal to sue people for stepping on the beach?

i could imagine something like that (maybe not so radical) happening if the riaa gets its way

here in aus we pay 30 bucks for cd's and thats a tenth of the pay people get being just above the poverty line

how the fuck can they impose this kind of price on us?
they can because we let them

get to dmusic theres some good bands there

been streamin metal often its cool stuff

[eclectica]

The musical archive of 1 million songs at mp3.com has been destroyed. This happened despite the offers of archive.org, primetones.com, and talentmatch.com to preserve the material.

[Beejus]

Originally posted by eclectica
The musical archive of 1 million songs at mp3.com has been destroyed. This happened despite the offers of archive.org, primetones.com, and talentmatch.com to preserve the material.



ouch.... someone's losing their job ;)

[eclectica]

Originally posted by Beejus
ouch.... someone's losing their job
you've got it all wrong.

wall street and official business protocol values profit. what they did was smart from a business perspective.

supporting the artists has no value from a business perspective, if the artists do not generate revenue.

on the contrary to your supposition, someone will be getting a bonus this year for having the courage to do what is best in the interests of financial profit.

in the business world, people are rewarded for their unscrupulous greed. the executive who keeps costs down by laying off the most employees gets the biggest bonus. wall street loves it too, and the stock market gets a boost.

[DMusic sucks]

Larry, Leflaw, or whatever his name is is a psycho!
He flames anyone in his domain and makes up dumbness and then says he'll sue you cause he's a bad bad lawyer. He doesn't give two craps about artists. Its his bad attitude that keeps people away.