From the recently launched Earplug:
http://www.earplug.cc/mailer/issue06/index.html
Groovetech, one of dance music's most popular Internet broadcasters and online record stores, has quietly ceased operations. According to a report in British tabloid The Sun, the company's investors, including Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood, announced the closure last week, and the website has simply disappeared. Founded in Seattle in 1996 by then-college-aged Jon Cunningham, Brian Pember, and Zach Jenkins, Groovetech began broadcasting live Internet radio a year later. The company expanded quickly in the heady late '90s, opening studios in San Francisco and London; forming partnerships with clubs and labels like Brooklyn's Halcyon, Seattle's Baltic Room, and London's Ninja Tune; and launching an online record store. But even as Groovetech offered more than 100 hours of new DJ sets each week, listenership continued to max-out all of the company's available bandwidth, and record sales began generating significant revenue, the company was constantly struggling to recapture its heavy technology investment. "There was no way to make money from the broadcasts, so we took an 'adapt or die' mentality and switched the strategy to record sales," explains Alex Hillinger, Groovetech's marketing director until 2002. "We kind of got swept up in the Internet rush and were always trying to make up what was spent in the beginning." (DJP)
Shimone/Justes
http://www.staticbeats.com > Electronic Music > Digital Culture
http://www.boomboombap.com > First Come > First Heard
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