An experimental foray into digital music distribution by Sony BMG and Universal Music Group is no more, according to the blog of a project vice president.
Jason Herskowitz, VP of Product Management for TotalMusic, wrote that he hopes "someone else figures out how to crack this music-on-the-web nut in a way that is a win for everyone in the value chain."
"The problem is that to make a music service a win for everyone ... all of the famished participants have to sit at the table - and be content to let all the others have a little bit to eat, even though they are still hungry themselves," he wrote.
TotalMusic was supposed to be a subscription service built into digital music players. Hardware manufacturers would eat the cost initially, providing a free lure to consumers for future subscriptions and guaranteeing money for the music industry. A federal antitrust probe put those plans on ice, and TotalMusic tried to reinvent itself as a source of royalty-free streaming for Web sites in exchange for user data. Neither plan got off the ground; the closest TotalMusic ever got to a solid service was a streaming widget that never left private beta.
Last week, an online music service for universities, Ruckus, also shut down. TotalMusic acquired Ruckus last year, hoping to use it as a back end for its own service. This led to a story in TechCrunch documenting TotalMusic's slide, and Herskowitz's blog post soon followed.
In addition to confirming TotalMusic's demise, Herskowitz muses on the sorry state of the music industry. In short, there's a tangle of legal muck surrounding all the ways that music can be listened to and acquired over the Internet and too many people that want a piece of the action. Herskowitz is short on solutions.
"But wouldn't it be cool," he wrote, "if there was a way to do this on a platform that plays nice with everyone? And compensates those that deserve compensation? And somehow can magically cover the costs associated with all of the above (hint: this is the kicker)? I sure think it would be."
