Sunday, November 30, 2003

Bye Bye MP3.com, Fuck You Vivendi Universal

This is going to be long, its going to ramble and its going to get sentimental at times. I received an Email Friday night from some guy saying now that www.mp3.com was closing down, did I want to host my music with them? What? Closing down? I knew I was out of the loop, but closing down? WTF?!

A quick scan around the net and more was revealed - which is funny considering there is no mention of it anywhere on www.mp3.com other than to say - we are no longer accepting new artists. No explanation, no reason, no more details. As of December the 2nd, all content will be deleted from the servers - we must be talking terabytes of music. The net is about to lose one of its finest assets.

Scroll back to 1999. I had just got on the net, and spent a bit of time MP3ing the back catalogue of 4 Track recordings I had been making over the last 18 months. I had heard about how the web and MP3 was the new way to distribute music, but to be fair, I had not a clue how being new to the whole phenomena. I chanced upon mp3.com - it wasn't a site I was familiar with - but I was instantly hooked on what they were offering. For free, independent artists could maintain a web presence, promote their music around the world and have mp3.com make CDs albums for fans on the fans demand.

Within months I had learnt a whole new load of things from making web pages, graphics and publishing. I think most of the stuff I know and do now had its roots in getting to grips with mp3.com and all its creative complexities. Before long I had two albums up available for sale and positive comments coming in from around the world from people who liked the messy, clunky noise I made and called home.

That respect was two way. Personally, the kind of music I love is far from polished. Some of my favourite music has made on lo-fi equipment and by less than accomplished musicians. I've never cared for singers who can sing and guitarists who can play technically brilliantly. Mp3.com was a haven for that kind of music. Plenty of us on there knew we would never be famous, but that didn't stop us being passionate, honest and experimental about our own music and other peoples.

I can honestly say that some of the best music I heard during 2000/2001 came off mp3.com. Bands and bedroom artists who wouldn't have stood a chance in the commercial world yet produced some of the finest and freshest music I'd enjoyed in a long while. To me it was a truly modern Punk explosion for the digital age. I still listen to much of the free music I downloaded and the artist CDs I bought during that time.

As brilliant as the community and the music was, there were many problems. Running battles with the company, artist spats, copyright issues, creeping commercialisation, gaming and subscription introductions. Some artists left, most stayed and disappeared into the past and their own lives. One thing lived on though. The music. Until now.

MP3.com suffered from a low rent perception - people thought that the free music it offered would be the latest music from top acts. They completely missed the point of it. Then they bought the top acts in, but only limited tracks were available- it was a slow slide to destruction - heightened by the sell-out to Vivendi Universal. People went there expecting polished studio pop or whatever. They were often disappointed. Don't get me wrong, there was a shed-load of crud there. But there was also diamonds and a little perseverance led to great rewards.

It was great for us artists as well. Shit - where else could I get a world wide audience and people buying my CDs? It was a great buzz for a while, and it even paid some money (enough for a bass guitar and tidy sound card for the PC.) The message boards were mental and there where some great stories which I just haven?t got time to pen. It was a great place to hang.

Scroll back to the present. Its been 18 months since I have made music and uploaded it to mp3.com. I haven't been following the site (I discovered napster and other p2p stuff.) But, in the back of my mind, I knew the 4 groups of mine were there waiting for people to chance across, and likewise a wealth of great music still waiting to be discovered. But now its gone. What a shame. I am really saddened, and it feels like a great loss. I've spent the weekend on a mad dash, copying pages and downloaded new tracks by my favourites - as good as ever I'm happy to report.

So, I wanted to end by saying thanks to the bands and people on mp3.com who have made my life special and made some of the most incredible / scratchy / passionate / moving / exciting music of the past 5 years. It?s a long list. Heroes the lot of them in no particular order:

Xenophile
Buttermilk Platform
The Monopropellants
MAJOR dad
The Pyramids Of Giza
Indy Rockwell/Matt Hopper
Viet Nam Prom
Mick OD
Doctor Oakroot
Metalmags / Erica Magrey
Jupiterscope
Slow Moe
Chris Gardener
The Bard Of Ely
Indie
Amsterdam Hash Club
MilKill
Timelock
Translucent
Machine State
L() Fi
The Ethereal Drains

And many others - good luck in any further musical endeavours, for the contacts, the comments and for the bullshit free music.

However, Vivendi Universal - Fuck you.

Posted by Dio Bach at 23:20

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