By Robert Andrews
Music store Wippit, which once blazed a trail in legal P2P, has shut down. Distorted Loop quotes a spokesperson as saying: "Wippit finally succumbed to tough market conditions and the changing landscape in the retail market."
Launched in 2001 by Paul Myers, Wippit first offered all-you-can-eat music via its legal P2P network for £30 per year - a paradigm that disappeared from view and has now come full circle with Qtrax having already launched the concept and Playlouder near to an ISP deal. Wippit later expanded to individual track retailing, picked up licenses from EMI and Warner, and garnered white label deals with easyJet, Taesco and Daily Star. It retailed DRM-free tracks years earlier than the majors, which only started doing so last year.
Wippit's spokesperson continued: "Launching an all you can eat, legal P2P service before the iPod had even been announced as well as many other innovations meant Wippit has been a great pioneer, but eventually a victim of our own vision and optimism." It's not clear exactly why Wippit has fallen victim but, as Distorted Loop notes, Myers quit last year.
For more on the changing landscape of the music industry, go to our EconMusic conference at the Natural History Museum in London. We have a special back-to-work rate going for this week only.
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