| Once upon a time, there was a land where everything | | | | massive fine of 200 million dollars!! |
| was free and sweet. There were singers singing, | | | | Later, the site was sold a couple of times, and CNet |
| movies rolling and we could get all running to your | | | | bought the domain finally. They started a completely |
| doorsteps, all you have to do was sound a 'click'. Yes, | | | | new site meant for online music sales, and did not |
| the net was this cozy back at that time. You could | | | | even care for the old user base. However, Trusonic |
| discover new music, send to your friends, download | | | | came in and used the user base to run another online |
| for free, search for unlimited free things, and didn't | | | | project, the GarageBand, which is quite a popular site |
| have to pay anything (other than the rent of your | | | | currently (promotes new bands). However, many other |
| internet connection). But things started to change, and | | | | sites have continued to serve the former purpose of |
| now you might even get to jails and pay millions of | | | | mp3.com, but none of them matched the hype had |
| dollars just for thinking about those 'former' | | | | started |
| opportunities. Here are the five coolest sites we miss | | | | SingingFish |
| from that era. | | | | SingingFish was an audio video search engine, mainly |
| The Original Napster | | | | popular because of its usefulness to find very rare |
| Sharing was fun back those days. Using Napster we | | | | tracks. But later AOL acquired the site, and did nothing. |
| could share our files with other users, and mostly the | | | | They used some of its feature on their own site, and |
| software was used for sharing music. Music was a lot | | | | let the site die out. |
| more fun at those times as one could share his/her | | | | Fonpods |
| own music and keep discovering new music all the | | | | Fonpods offered free podcast listening over phone, |
| time. | | | | which, the telecommunication industry claimed to cost |
| But as said, happiness does not last long. Soon RIAA | | | | them millions of dollars. Eventually, they forced the site |
| forced the Napster to close down, and made us learn | | | | to shut down. Same reason they went after |
| that sharing without owning the copyright is illegal. The | | | | allfreecalls.net ad similar sites. |
| current Napster is nowhere close to the former one, | | | | OLGA |
| and we sure do miss the original site. | | | | OLGA, Online Guitar Archive used to have every |
| was a site where new and lesser known bands could | | | | guitar tablature you could fetch for. This was relatively |
| share their creations music and communicate with a | | | | harmless, but still, the copyright owners managed to |
| community full of people welcoming new music and | | | | close them down. Ours is a great loss since we have |
| other bands like themselves. The site was completely | | | | lost this "Tablature Bible", but overall, this did no overall |
| legal, and users could download their favourite music at | | | | profit for the copyright owners since guitar tablatures |
| no cost, and completely legally. But soon things started | | | | are quite easy to find, though scattered in a lot of |
| going wrong when they launched my.mp3.com, where | | | | smaller sites. Some people never want to see you |
| users could upload albums they legally own to be | | | | happy :( |
| shared. This was also quite legal (arguably), but as | | | | We hear that there are still more to come. Even |
| sweet things don't last long, the record companies | | | | Internet Radio sites may be forced to close. Keep |
| sued them and managed to win, forcing them to pay a | | | | your fingers crossed. |