Has MusicZeit gone out of business?

 
ech3
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Has MusicZeit gone out of business?

 ·  Posted: 09.06.2018 - 17:24  ·  #1
The link I have now redirects to a dummy "domain available" page.
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Re: Has MusicZeit gone out of business?

 ·  Posted: 09.06.2018 - 17:51  ·  #2
That has been the case for a few weeks now.

At first it looked like they didn't extend their hosting subscription.

My guess is that time was a major issue. SMD as their physical counterpart seems
to have taken a more important role, especially with all the new Neu Harmony releases on cd-r.

I did notice that there were very little new (and interesting) releases through MusicZeit for some time already.

Downside was also, that only FLAC or MP3 files were available, as was the fact that they were reasonably expensive compared to Bandcamp (where you can download all formats you want after purchase)


CDBaby has disqualified itself also (for me anyway) since they have switched to MP3 320 downloads only (cd's are subject to too much shipping costs)
ech3
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Re: Has MusicZeit gone out of business?

 ·  Posted: 10.06.2018 - 15:00  ·  #3
Ah, I wasn't aware CD Baby had gotten rid of their FLAC downloads. What the hell?

The flipside for the US is that SMD is outrageously priced. ($18 for 19-day shipping, LOL!)

That pretty much leaves Bandcamp and only Bandcamp. And that's fine with me.
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Re: Has MusicZeit gone out of business?

 ·  Posted: 10.06.2018 - 15:22  ·  #4
Quote by ech3
Ah, I wasn't aware CD Baby had gotten rid of their FLAC downloads. What the hell?

Me neither.
Apparently it was done "In order to create a more consistent customer experience (...)".
LOL and WTF.
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Re: Has MusicZeit gone out of business?

 ·  Posted: 10.06.2018 - 16:16  ·  #5
Quote by ech3
Ah, I wasn't aware CD Baby had gotten rid of their FLAC downloads. What the hell?


I discovered this info several weeks ago. I sent them a message inquiring as to why they no longer offered a lossless format. I got the standard "consistent customer experience" response. I told them that by only offering MP3's they lost me as a customer.

As far as MusicZeit, I had tried their URL a few times over the past several weeks. I just assumed that Mr. Law is no longer interested in offering downloads.

I'm glad to see that Groove seems to be expanding their download offerings.

Shipping for CD's from the UK and the Netherlands to the US has gotten so expensive. The vast majority of my music purchases are now from Bandcamp. It's great to see that bands like RMI and FSP are releasing their entire back catalogs as well as previously unreleased recordings on Bandcamp.

I may get flamed for this but....are the shipping charges being padded to build in some extra profit? When I bought the new ['ramp] CD from Stephen or some CD's from RicochetDream on Discogs (shipped from Poland) the shipping charges were reasonable. Are German and Polish postage rates significantly lower than the UK or the Netherlands?
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Re: Has MusicZeit gone out of business?

 ·  Posted: 10.06.2018 - 16:24  ·  #6
Quote by VinceL"][quote="ech3
[...] Are German and Polish postage rates significantly lower than the UK or the Netherlands?


Speaking for Germany, I am keeping my fingers crossed for them to remain reasonably affordable in the future. National shipping rates are about to be increased later this year but I hope international shipping will not be affected (albeit I have little hope...).

In the past, it used to be the other way round (before the Euro was introduced): I remember collecting orders and going to the Netherlands once a month to ship lots to countries outside Germany because postage was significantly lower in the Netherlands.

Stephen
GrahamH
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Re: Has MusicZeit gone out of business?

 ·  Posted: 10.06.2018 - 19:47  ·  #7
Shipping costs from the USA
to the UK have become horrendous :shock:

Add into that Import VAT,
and sadly it's just no longer viable to order CDs from the USA.

The only glimmer of light last year
was CD Baby doing one cent for International Delivery on orders of 3 CDs or more....
....but I still got clobbered with import VAT when my order arrived.... :(

It's sure becoming expensive these days to be a collector of physical media when it comes to music... :roll:
ech3
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Re: Has MusicZeit gone out of business?

 ·  Posted: 10.08.2018 - 16:27  ·  #8
I checked again recently, Musiczeit is now some generic blog about dance music.

My guess is the domain became available and this site grabbed it.

So, yes it appears that the old Musiczeit we knew is long gone.
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