DECEMBER
25, 2005 - Online Music Distributor (OMD)
AMPCAST.com today announced on their
website, how they were going to suspend
their online services and probably go
off-line by february of 2006. The Dubroom
comments. (AMPCAST
REACTION)
Ampcast
was founded in the same time, that MP3.com
(See: The
Ballad of MP3.com) was going down. The
Online Artist Community was in great turmoil
as Vivendi single-handed looted the website
and robbed hundreds of thousands of artists
from a platform where they could
independantly establish an income out of
their musical productions.
Initially, Ampcast was a good alternative
to MP3.com. They provided artists with
royalties over the music downloaded, and
they were among the first to create an
option for artists to actually sell their
MP3's. This changed after MP3.com was
completely down...
Ampcast made a mistake, which caused them
to announce in december 2005 how they were
going to suspend the services and in
february 2006 the website will probably go
off-line as well. Sad...
What is that mistake?
An Online Music Distributor (OMD) should
not see itself as a service to artists, but
rather a service to listeners and especially
companies who need music.
Ampcast, and several other websites where
online artists can upload their music, are
targeting the artists with all kinds of
things for which the artists then have to
pay a thing. The visitors of the websites
can then download the music for free while
the artist are factually the ones who pay to
be heard. And while the traffic of these
websites attract potential advertizers,
artists are the ones who are on the losing
side.
Everyone profits from the musical works
of the artists, everyone other then the
artists. This is what caused AMPCAST to
announce on their website how they had to
shut down their website all completely...
Ofcourse!
When an OMD starts to become dependant on
the artists for their income, you know it's
allready passed that point in which they can
potentially become another success like
MP3.com. For "all" the artists
have, is the works of art. And the ones who
make money with music, don't have to pay a
single thing to get these works of art.
MP3.com has proven, how it is possible
for an OMD to actually become a big success.
They shared that success with the artists,
who were highly motivated to release high
quality musical works. The Online Artist
Community still has the potential to
threaten the established music industry
thanks to the freedom nature of the
Internet. The waiting is on an OMD who sees
this potential and has the money to invest.
Unfortunately, the online (DUB) Reggae
Music Artists alone can not do it. The
Reggae Industry in itself is not a big one,
when compared to for example the Hip Hop and
Dance Industries. An OMD specializing in
(DUB) Reggae Music will not be able to
survive commercially.
An OMD who doesn't know what it means to
be an OMD and sees artists as customers
while the ones who make money with the music
can get it for free, will also not be able
to survive commercially. For which we can
now also, unfortunately, add Ampcast to the
list of documented evidence to substantiate
this statement.
It's truly sad, that AMPCAST.com has to
shut their doors. They could potentially
have become that second MP3.com.
DUBROOM.org
---------------------------------------------
The Letter:
Ampcast Artists,
Today is a sad day for us at
Ampcast.com. This is the day we have
decided to announce that we will be
shutting down our services.Although this
may not surprise anyone, it comes with
great remorse.
We started Ampcast.com in 1999 with a
grand vision of how the Internet and
digital music would change the music
industry. Since 1999, our vision of the
impact of Internet and digital music has
become a reality and has dramatically
changed the music industry for the benefit
of all its constituents: music fans,
musicians and associated corporations.
Unfortunately, Ampcast.com has not been
able to successfully capitalize on this
opportunity despite the efforts of its
dedicated employees, loyal customers and
generous investors.
Soon after its inception, Ampcast.com
raised capital in a private placement with
friends and family to fund its operations.
The Company raised enough capital to hire
Chris Waskowich and me full time. After
working on it for 3 years, in January 2002
we had to terminate ourselves in order to
conserve the cash to extend operations.
The intention was to continue developing
Ampcast.com in our spare time, hoping that
our business plan and the market would
mature into a self-sustaining entity. So,
for the past 4 years Ampcast.com has
continued to exist with our voluntary
effort. It has become more of a hobby.
Ampcast.com will be completely out of
cash by the end of February, as
Ampcast.com cannot even afford its basic
expenses. We are now forced to make the
decision to close Ampcast.com. To begin,
we have shut down the following features:
- New Artist Signup
- Creating CDs
- Purchasing UPCs
- Message Boards
We will also discontinue automatically
charging credit cards for monthly and
quarterly artists. Therefore, you can
remain on the website and continue to use
its limited services for free. We
currently do not know when we will
completely shut down Ampcast.com, but we
are predicting that it will happen before
the end of February.
We sincerely hope that you will
continue your endeavors on the Internet
because we strongly believe that the
Internet will play a vital role in the
success of your music and the music
industry.
Best Wishes and Warm Regards,
Erik Briceno
ORIGINAL
URL
---------------------------------------------
COMMENTS BY THE AUTHOR: EXTRA
COMMENTS: As you can see below, AMPCAST
themselves deny the suggections in this
article. And I (Messian Dread, the writer)
should have added to the article, that it
has never been my intention to equate
AMPCAST with MP3.com. I should also have
added, that AMPCAST did have a good CD
programm for the artist.
------------------------------------------------------
AMPCAST
COMMENTS: BACK
TO TOP
Just wanted to state that in regards to
Ampcast.com that we did not rely on Artists
for income, but rather to keep the doors
open to artists utilizing our services
(then) because advertising revenue fell
through the floor with the RIAA cracking the
wip on any and just about every OMD out
there and bandwidth not being free- I think
you get the point.
(meaning who wants to advertise on a
website soon to be subject to the RIAA's
legal team of bottom feeders?)
So anyway, I just wanted to clarify that
and I'm glad many of you still out there
haven't lost hope.
Jim Waskowich Owner Ampcast.com
DUBROOM RERPLIES:
Hi there Jim!
Thanks very much for your posting!
Indeed, we have not lost hope and I remember
Ampcast, it's too bad that the site didn't
make it to where we all would like to see it
come. I hope that you also did not lose
hope!
Indeed, Ampcast can not really be accused
of feeding of the artists. I remember the CD
programm which was kind of nice, also
Ampcast when they started even payed
royalties to the artists.
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