I discovered the policy when I went to upload a song today. It was introduced in an effort to curtail uploading of plagerised or p2p type file sharing. To upload there now, you must join their "Advantage" club. You must have a cd for sale with a valid UPC code to sell there. It would have been nice if they would have made an email announcement before instituing their policy. The music that had uploaded previously, is no longer listed. However, there are still "slots" on the artists song page for them, titles and music removed. Is this future of other "free music" sites?

Those BASTARDS!

...but don't worry too much A. Gene.

This is NOT the future of the free music sites. Amazon.com was never really hip to supporting the indie scene anyway. Their business model is to sell items, thus not suprised they are "trimming the fat" in this manor.

Places like Dmusic will always still be around (unless the RIAA gets it's wet-dream of killing them all off via perversion of Congress and copyright/trade laws to strengthen it's evil monopoly.)

If Amazon wants to ignore the indies, it's THEIR funeral.

Yeah, they did the same thing for book publishers, and now required membership...

I would like to see either cafepress or ourmedia.org create an iTunes like client that allows ANYONE to sell or share their music.

jsk2001, I think Dmusic is getting ready to try and fill those shoes for us.

(And I couldn't be happier about it!)

It proves that if you're not a seller or consumer, you don't even exist for them.

Thanks A. Gene for telling everyone what happened to us.

"It was introduced in an effort to curtail uploading of plagerised or p2p type file sharing."

Jeff Bozo drinks the KoolAid.

If you download a song from the major labels, it is characterized as theft; if you want to offer music for downloading, then it's suddenly promotion and they charge you for it.

There are two sets of rules. One for them; another for us.

Even if the RIAA loses the Grokster case, this situation will remain, and all of the others like it. There is nothing that can be done about it, either. Even though the RIAA and MPAA are dictating legislation in our country, they are somehow not under the Dept. of Justice's jurisdiction.

They can do whatever they want because they own the Senate Judiciary Committee.

No skin of my nose, I just found Dmusic and plan to use this place instead of Amazon's service.

welcome Goldenavatar!

Yep...D M U S I C.com RULEZ!

The best thing would be distribute a free itunes like client to millions of users. If the RIAA wants to miss out on this huge audience and lose money, fine.

This little article has just inspired a song by X-Hall Loser here on dMusic called Delayed Revolution. He also had music there. I figured it was just a matter of time before Amazon pulled the plug. But like I said, they could have at least sent an email about it.