Dotmusic: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|1995–2003 British music webzine}}

'''Dotmusic''' was an internet music site that existed as a stand alone website from June 1995 to December 2003. Initially intended as the web compliment to the UK music industry trade magazine ''[[Music Week]]'', the site was relaunched in December 1998 as a website for music fans.

{{italic title}}

'''''Dotmusic''''' was a music [[webzine]]<ref>{{cite web|date=26 November 1999|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/537881.stm|title=Alan McGee: The alternative music man |work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref> that existed as a standalone website from 1 June 1995<ref>Bits & Bytes, [[The Sunday Times]], 13 August 1995</ref> to December 2003. Initially intended as the web complement to the UK music industry trade magazine ''[[Music Week]]'', the site was relaunched in December 1998 as a website for music fans with features, interviews and the UK charts. The site was edited by Andy Strickland and among its most prominent writers were Nimalan Nadesalingam (Nimalan Nades) who contributed artist biographies and [[James Masterton]] who contributed a weekly UK chart commentary. After an internship in summer 2000, [[Alex Donne Johnson]] used his experience at ''Dotmusic'' to go on and found the urban music website ''[[RWD Magazine|RWDmag]]'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexdonnejohnson/|title=Alex Donne Johnson}}</ref> which later become one of the key players in the development of [[Grime (music genre)|grime]], [[UK garage]] and [[dubstep]] online.

''Dotmusic'' included one of the earliest pay download music services, ''Dotmusic On Demand''.<ref>[http://www.webuser.co.uk/products/Dotmusic_on_Demand_review_1626-212.html Review in Webuser.co.uk] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724150910/http://www.webuser.co.uk/products/Dotmusic_on_Demand_review_1626-212.html |date=July 24, 2008 }}, 21 October 2003</ref><ref>

Dotmusic was originally owned by [[Miller Freeman]], before being sold to [[BT Group plc|BT]] in 2002. In 2003 the site was sold to [[Yahoo!]] and subsequently incorporated into Yahoo's UK based music portal, UK [[LAUNCHcast|Launch]]. Whilst some features remain, namely the music news pages (and news archive) plus the weekly chart commentary by [[James Masterton]], the most popular feature of Dotmusic, the community [[Internet forum|message boards]], was closed.

"Second Sight", [[The Guardian]], 10 April 2003, p27</ref> It was also famous for its discussion forum, one of the most popular and active message boards in the UK.<ref>"New media gets the message: Content and community were vital to investor's plans to get rich quick. But sites with great content and large communities are still being forced to close.", The Guardian, 21 June 2001, p2</ref> As well as forums devoted to various artists, there was a free-for-all, off-topic forum called Dotmusic Lite, known as DotLite for short. A number of DotCons - conventions for ''Dotmusic'' users - were held in cities around the UK from 1999 onwards.

There was a major online marketing campaign in 1999, followed by a TV press and online campaign in 2000. The site was regularly in the top ten sites for children.<ref>"Click count", The Guardian, 22 September 2000, p21</ref>

The community spirit lived on in the wake of the forum closure, with the majority of the community moving on to new privately created discussion forums. Notable among these are Moopy, offshooting from the general discussion forum, Chart Refugees, carrying much of the former Chart forum users, as well as MadonnaNation and MJ Refugees, keeping together the bulk of each respective artist forum's members together. However, since their conception in late December 2003, these sites have expanded beyond their original areas, offering other artist forums, as well as specialist genre forums for general news and user-created personal charts.

''Dotmusic'' was originally owned by [[Miller Freeman, Inc.]], before being sold to [[BT Group plc|BT]] in 2002.<ref>"BT buys online music site", The Guardian, 8 March 2002, p23</ref> In 2003, the site was sold to [[Yahoo!]]<ref>"Yahoo! joins up dots for UK music site.", The Guardian, 29 October 2003, p21

==External Sites==

</ref> and subsequently incorporated into Yahoo!'s UK based music portal, UK [[LAUNCHcast|Launch]]. The main ''Dotmusic'' site shut down at the end of 2003. The regular forum posters created a number of replacement boards in an effort to retain the community.

* [http://www.moopy.co.uk/forums/index.php? Moopy]

* [http://www.chart-refugees.com Chart Refugees]

==References==

* [http://www.madonnanation.com/forums/ MadonnaNation]

<references />

* [http://s3.invisionfree.com/MJ_Dot_Refugees/index.php?act=idx MJ Refugees]

==External Siteslinks==

*[https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.dotmusic.co.uk Archive of Dotmusic.co.uk] - from the ''[[Internet Archive#Wayback Machine|Wayback Machine]]''.

{{Yahoo! Inc.}}

{{BT Group}}

[[Category:Online music magazines published in the United Kingdom]]

[[Category:BT Group]]

[[Category:Yahoo! acquisitions]]

[[Category:1995 establishments in the United Kingdom]]

[[Category:2003 disestablishments in the United Kingdom]]

{{music-website-stub}}