http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/34009.html
It's about the news that you have no more than 14 days to get at your stuff on MP3.com before the big meltdown
cheers
Eddie Johnson

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Eddie from Rotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

my mail is virus-free thanks to Norton Antivirus2002


[This message has been edited by eddiefromrotherham (edited 11-17-2003).]

Thanks for alerting us to this dramatic but predictable move.

Thanks for the info. Any other sites you guys know of?

The only other I know of is www.iuma.com. I created a new account with them about a month and a half ago and it is still not activated so, I am not sure how good they are.

[This message has been edited by harosha (edited 11-17-2003).]

[This message has been edited by harosha (edited 11-17-2003).]

Hello

By accident last night I came across this site. It seems this happened to this musician and he's over on Ampcast now. Check it out, maybe it'll work for you.

The other thing that I think would be worth watching is places like zdnet.com and cnet.com. When there have been majoy changes on the internet in the past they usually kept everyone up to date with the "news" and good alternatives. At least that is where I always found out about Napster etc.
http://www.ampcast.com/music/23689/music.php

Scott

see also http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML/007664.html

Here's the latest development of interest, copied from "The Register"'s page today:
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MP3.com founder Robertson is in talks with Vivendi Universal to save the music collection at the site. CNET bought the domain name last week after a night on the tiles, and Vivendi said the archive will close in December.

But Archive.org founder Brewster Kahle says he's only too happy to host the collection.

"Our approach is to provide unlimited bandwidth forever for free," he told us today. "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." Kahle added that the archive.org had plenty of bandwidth too.

Archive.org is supported by donations from private foundation, government grants, and in kind donations from corporations. Robertson, who sold MP3.com to VU two years ago, described Kahle as "a real visionary".

So while MP3.com's new owners CNET enter the business of selling locked music, the new owners could give the commons a tremendous filip. ®

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Eddie from Rotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

my mail is virus-free thanks to Norton Antivirus2002

Scott

I don't think CNET or ZDNET (owned by CNET) will be too enthusiastic and or even willing to share with others on their site as to where to find alternative Free Music Host sites on the internet since CNET is going 'into' the Music selling business now. Their service will not be free and I'm sure they don't want to provide information to people looking for a free service because that would be a bad buisness decision on their part if they did. CNET - "Yeah, were going to be a fee based Music service but we'll point you to several free Music Hosting sites that will obviously take a bite out of our sales and profit but what the heck?!? We'll do it anyway because we really don't care if our bottom line is affected!"........ NO WAY!!! My 2 cents.

Best regards,
Mike

PS: I'd be very surprised to find information on CNET or ZDNET regarding where to find free Music Hosting sites now.

Thanks for the info Scott. I'd heard some good comments about Ampcast and I decided today that I would move my mp3.com site to Ampcast.

www.ampcast.com looks like a very nice site. I wonder how many people really go there worldwide and purchase CD's from new artists? For the almost $100.00 yearly membership fee what are the approximate yearly CD sales from a site like this for the unknown artist if any? What about legal issues?



[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 11-24-2003).]

The number of visitors to Ampcast is quite low and you shouldn't expect to much in way of sales of your music. A person who had a number #1 hit on Ampcast's pages only sold 2 CD's the whole time it was listed. There has been an evolutionary change over the years as to how Artists get paid. It used to be for every download of a song (visitors could download songs for free) from your artist page you would be paid 5 cents for each and every download. Now a person interested in your music has to pay upfront before he or she can download a song. Someone interested in your music has to now pay between 50 cents and a dollar for each and every song download. That in itself is a hindrance for people to download your music. The membership fee is $75 a year. They do pay you 50% of price of each CD sold. But since vistors to the site are quite low your music is not getting the exposure it deserves and sales of your CD would most likely be quite low also. There have been reports that after an Artist sells a CD from his page that the actual sale of the CD doesn't show up on the Artists page for sometimes over a month from the actual sale! If people see that your sales are not listed on your page (not an accurate listing) they will think your music is less than desirable possibly because your CD sales (if any) aren't reported accurately and showing a lower amount than may be the case.

Best regards,
Mike