MP3.COM - ALL files will be deleted

elektro80

MP3.com Artist 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.

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, <http://click.mp3.com/c/n_144425458/t_d9O1/u_mp3.cnet.com/artist.html>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. <http://click.mp3.com/c/n_144425458/t_d9O2/u_help/help/article/general_update.html>Click here for help updating your contact information.

Please be sure to check the <http://click.mp3.com/c/n_144425458/t_d9O3/u_msg/artistforums/listnews/?category_id=3009>Sophie message board and <http://click.mp3.com/c/n_144425458/t_d9O4/u_eginform/ssr/index.pl?t=2>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 <http://click.mp3.com/c/n_144425458/t_d9O5/u_mp3.cnet.com/artist.html>sign up here today.

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Cyxeris · Joined: Oct 30, 2003 Posts: 1125 Location: Louisville, KY

I got my notice from them as well. I don't know what their intent is, but it smells suspiciously like Cnet moving to hop on the iTunes Music Store/Napster 2/ad nauseum bandwagon. After all, Universal has already signed on...

Cyx

Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.
-Sinclair Lewis

mosc · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2003 6:51 am Post subject:

Sheesh!

I guess you can't stay in business giving away something for free. We can't afford to offer streaming audio to our members unless someone donates a big pipe.

Hmmmm.... This is a pretty significant day for independents.

Cyxeris · Joined: Oct 30, 2003 Posts: 1125 Location: Louisville, KY

It's a pointless gesture, I suppose, but I am en route to delete my music right now. *I* will be the one to do it.

Cyx

mosc · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2003 7:07 am Post subject:

egw · Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2003 8:21 am Post subject:

OK, so where will everyone go now to put their mp3s?
IUMA?
ampcast?
Anyone have a list of good (i.e. free) sites?
I suppose these places will be deluged with refugees from mp3.com.

SayersWeb · Joined: Apr 07, 2003 Posts: 62 Location: Sugar Land, Texas

Cyxeris · Joined: Oct 30, 2003 Posts: 1125 Location: Louisville, KY

I am prepared to see them all disappear as the industries at hand finally move in to stripmine the internet of it's creative potential. It was great while it lasted, but the answer to 99 out of 100 questions is money, and nobody was making a nickel off of the music I had on mp3.com. I suppose Universal found that they weren't finding the sort of cheap commercial talent on there that they may have expected too, and then be able to conveniently snatch up, and thus were unable to recoup and profit from their investment. Dead weight, cut 'er loose. Highest bidder.

Also, if Cnet had any intention of maintaining what was left of what mp3.com was, then they clearly would not be laying us off and moving the factory to Mexico, so to speak. With 2 weeks notice, no less. No, they have other objectives, I'm sure. It's all about the shareholders. We're just cyberloiterers.

Cyx

elektro80 · Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 11:14 am Post subject:

There is a cute and friendly article about all this and more at
Points of View: MP3.com - We made history!

Michael Chocholak · Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 11:26 am Post subject:

I will check that out. I was waiting to see what the reactions would be from people once the deed was actually done.

I found this one at Geek News http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Dec/gee20031204022920.htm which includes reader crossfire comments.

It also includes a link to the Mp3.com message boards which CNET has fired up again... a very surreal experience reading those... Mr Primetones is there just 'hangin out'... much of it seems contrived and choreagraphed - including some of the negative comments... yet I know some of those folks are real... strange walking wounded experience... we are not apparently going to be one big happy family again. At least not there & not for a long time.

elektro80 · Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 11:29 am Post subject:

Ahh... thx... surfing that link now..

Michael Chocholak · Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 12:12 pm Post subject:

We Made History - Yeah, I came across his post on the boards last night.

This is an excellent point of view to adopt when you no longer have any choice. But I like his optimistic attitude.

But I'm sure good things, innovative things are in the offing.

And perhaps "most change is good" - it certainly is inevitable.

Forge on! Cool

elektro80 · Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 12:16 pm Post subject:

Full steam ahead! Very Happy

Cyxeris · Joined: Oct 30, 2003 Posts: 1125 Location: Louisville, KY

Greetings,

We here at CNET Download.com have been hard at work on our newest
endeavor: an effort to offer this community a place to feature its
music, similar to the old MP3.com. We thought we'd introduce
ourselves and provide a few answers.

My name is Aaron Newton, and along with the Download.com team,
I'll be working on this initiative. I was one of the original
founders of www.epitonic.com and have a great deal of online
music experience. I hope to bring you a music site that meets the
high expectations we all had for MP3.com when it first started.
In the coming months, I'll be sending out periodic e-mails to
bring you up to speed on our progress and to get feedback from
you about our ideas. Although the product we envision is similar
to MP3.com, it's going to be different in some ways. We hope to
bring you and our music audience the same level of service that
CNET has provided to games and software audiences.

I posted a similar message to this one on the MP3.com message
boards (http://forums.mp3.com) back before the holidays. In it, I
mentioned that we had planned on first launching a pre-
registration for our new service, with a fully functional public
beta to launch soon after. I'm now pleased to announce that we
will be initially offering artists more than simple pre-
registration.

When music.download.com launches in March of this year, artists
will be able to register, create an artist, enter songs and
artist data, upload MP3 files, and visit the resulting artist
page. We'll also be offering simple Download.com URLs that can be
used to direct users to your artist page. Yes, the first
iteration of music.download.com will feature a minimal set of
features, but we've made this choice intentionally so that we can
get your music back online as soon as possible. Following our
launch we'll be working hard to add more advanced features and
services that serve both the artist community and the listeners
interested in your music.

Thank you for your patience and your participation on the message
boards. We can't respond to every post, but we'll do our best to
address your concerns. We want to hear from you!

Finally, we'd like to answer a question many of you might have:
Why didn't we just buy all the MP3 files and software that the old
MP3.com had? The short answer is that CNET was not given the
opportunity to acquire these treasures. Although the transition may
be a bit painful in the short term, we ultimately see it as an
opportunity to build a more robust and current service for you and
your fans.

Aaron Newton
Product Manager
music.download.com

_______________________________________________________

Personally, I am quite interested in a more detailed explaination of "CNET was not given the opportunity to acquire these treasures." That smells suspiciously like newspeak for "CNET decided not to bring that option up."
Cyx

mosc · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2004 8:03 am Post subject:

I saw the CEO of CNET on CNBC yesterday. He talked about this. He said that they couldn't get Vivendi to sell them the music. He said they bought what they could, the domain name, tradmarks, and a little bit of old hardware. From his body language, I could see he was still unhappy about that. I'm leaning to believing him.

Maybe they'll come up with something good. I hope they allow deep linking.

Michael Chocholak · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2004 11:33 am Post subject:

I dunno. How many versions of this truth are there? It's like a shell game in a hall of mirrors. Confused

Cyxeris · Joined: Oct 30, 2003 Posts: 1125 Location: Louisville, KY

Nah, I wouldnt assume that. I make comments like I did when there is no data available to analyze. It is clearly possible that he is telling the truth an, in fact, makes more honest sense if he is. It just seemed more likely to me that we were of no real consequence in the dealings between these two companies, an idea supported by the cold manner in which their dealings were executed. Just leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.

Personally, I dont see why they made a deal at all without the music. So, if he's being honest, then a vast cloud of suspicion now surrounds Vivendi, and I will not be so quick to discount Cnet's motivations here. I might even give them a shot. We shall see, but I think it's important for us all to pay close attention to their goings on and such.

Cyx

Michael Chocholak · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2004 7:03 pm Post subject:

Well, for sure it's a watch, wait & see situation. But what data are you refering to? Sure it's possible he's telling the truth. Actually, I hope he is. And there might be WMDs in Iraq. There probably are. And maybe Bill didn't. Guess it depends on your definition of sex.

Seems strange CNET couldn't buy them, but TruSonic could. And why did they spend so much for a domain name and trademark they're not going to use. Some old hardware? There is no cloud of suspicion over Vivendi. They are one of the corporate damned.

None of it adds up very well for me.

Ok. I hope it's all real. Right now my tracks are taken care of (and nearly sorted out again). I might put one there as a tag eventually, but as long as I have other choices, I think I'll be other places.

mosc · Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2004 7:30 am Post subject:

Mez, you would have been a better reporter than the one they've got on CNBC; that's for sure. Good points a savey reported should have touched.

elektro80 · Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2004 1:20 pm Post subject:

If I remember correctly, TruSonic and mp3.com/Vivendi had a messy deal which in effect meant that "selling" the content to anyone else would be pretty hard to do. On the other hand.. the content longed to guys like us, and not mp3.com. The deal over at mp3.com.au is far more restrictive. Over here they own your ass if you sign.