RIP MP3.com

Most who read this site know my feelings on MP3.com. It used to be a great resource for finding great local and underground bands. I signed up for them in early 1998 and I loved being able to upload one of my song and share it with the world immediately. Then, they started making sure you didn’t upload “Stairway to Heaven” by putting each upload through an approval process which took a few days. I could live with that. Then, they started taking over a month. The last straw was when they decided to limit nonpaying customers, the ones that made their site as extensive and incredible as it was, to three songs. They cut us down to 3 after waiting months to get them approved. That was the whole reason I started this site in the first place.

You would think I was happy they were closing down, but I’m not. So much music will be lost forever on December 2, 2003. From the Register:

CNET has decided to buy some “specific assets” of the company that Michael Robertson founded in 1998 with the intention of forming a marketplace for the exchange of music. CNET won’t inherit the sprawling archive of music that has accreted there, however. MP3.com has never been less than a mess, but it does represent a hefty social archive. And at some point (and we shall endeavour to find out who, and where) two drunken business executives decided to flush the chain on the whole lot, and strike a deal. CNET has acquired the mp3.com domain name, to add to its existing treasures, such as “com.com” and – stop laughing, you folks – “news.com”. The music archive, however, gets it in the neck.

Musicians received this announcement on Friday.

“Your personal information, music, images, related content or other information will not be transferred to CNET Networks, Inc. or any other third party… 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.”

So Vivendi is not even selling MP3.com as we know it. They’re just selling the domain name and then destroying, or locking up, every song in their system. This is immoral, unethical, and should be illegal.