High-tech news and download portal CNET is said to be getting ready to launch an online music service, in the interest of which the portal is going to buy MP3.com, all but the granddaddy of online music downloading, from Vivendi Universal.
According to Reuters, CNET itself said at midday Friday that it would buy MP3.com for an undisclosed sum, after almost 24 hours worth of speculation which hadn't been confirmed or denied by the popular news and download portal. Reuters also said CNET plans to re-open MP3.com next year "as a place for information about music, though the site will not compete with music download services."
MP3.com's Website included a message saying CNET had acquired "certain assets" of the popular music Website, adding it wouldn't be accessible "in its current form" after December 2, and artists who had uploaded music to MP3.com should transfer that material to other servers. CNET confirmed later November 14 that MP3.com would indeed close down December 2.
Originally, CBS Marketwatch reported November 14 that CNET and Vivendi had yet to respond to the possibility when reached for comment on the same day. And a CNET public affairs representative did not return a call for comment from AVN.com before this story went to press.
But the MP3.com Website was also said to have included an invitation to readers to sign up for information about the coming CNET MP3 site. "You can rest assured," Marketwatch quoted the invitation as saying, "that we are working hard to build a service that will be best-in-class at hosting, promoting, and showcasing your work."
Six years ago, MP3.com was the king of the cyberspace music download world, such as it was at the time, with ambitions toward sharing tens of thousands of albums online. That made MP3.com rich during the dot-com boom but it also attracted attention from record companies who drove it away, until it resurfaced in 2000 – by which time Napster had conquered music downloading.
Vivendi bought MP3.com for $372 million in 2001, Reuters said, then stripped it of copyrighted materials and started it all over again as a place for unsigned bands and performers to find a broader audience.
