So long, internet.
Four years on, we have to stop.My current financial situation means that I cannot continue to keep Music Search Plus alive. It breaks my heart to shut the service off, after the amazing things I have seen and the people I have met through running this service.
How did this happen?
I started the service out of my bedroom while in education. Originally, the service was free to run, with only meagre server costs to maintain - I took results from Dogpile and others without them noticing. This was the dream. This didn't last long.
I recoded the site, again and again, playing cat and mouse with legal troubles and provider site configurations. My network expanded at times to up to 8 servers.
The network grew to handle over 80 million visitors a month, for two years. I continued to fund it out of my own pocket. Seeqpod, a result provider, stepped in and offered me free results in exchange for signing an NDA and using a proper API. No problems!
Seeqpod went bust. I had to invest in several new providers who charge on a per-result basis.
The new providers proved unsustainable with the amount of traffic I was handling, and I cannot afford to keep it running.
I have served over 450 million MP3s to visitors from all around the world. I've always made a loss on running this service.
I will continue to innovate and bring you my ideas - so if you can to help me - as a thanks for the service, donate me a pint.
Sponsors
Over the years, these and many other people have helped immensely in server costs.James Sinclair, CEMENT HEAD, Ian Fox, Luke Mitchell, Garrett Stanwick, Roland Moreno, Sam Seal, J Ryan, Hugo Lamosa Garrido, Pam Quinn, Globally Relaxed, Matt Cox, Alvaro Landsberger, Gia Milinovich, The Documentary Film Network, Nicholas Ovenden, Alison Allcock, Garrick Laing, Joakim Danung, Wynoh, Robert Cox, David Worth, Ken Mckay, Saleem Kudin, Philip Colling-Blackman, Anthony Robinson, Rose Johnson, DRM, Simon Patfield, Niall McNamara, Michael Knaggs, Nina Way, Jan Walløe, Petrina Freeman, Joel Griffith, Patrick Wallace, Marie Sandland, Penny Carter, EJ Jenkins, Phil Reynold, Ian Firestone, Griffin Outpost Web Development, Daniel Nash, Dawn Turner, DJ23, Philip Reynolds, Chris Brading, John Dinwoodie, Paul Black, Sharon Kennedy, Nicholas Rae, Rene Alberto, George Overton, Mark Lampert, Chris Flynn, Thomas Voice, Tetyana Tarasyuk, Lindsay McLaughlin, Lucinda Robinson, Mary Meerschaert, James Goodman, Peter Martin, Adrian Turner, Ryan Brierley, Ian Fox, Seth Cornwall, Steve North, Finnbar, William McLeod, Jouravsky Alexander, Gabriela Medina, Joe McCarthy, Andrew Blundell, Farhad Panahi, Natasha Hanjin, Edward Vine, Alvaro Landsberger, Richard Young, Dennis Kromhout van der Meer, Michael Kennedy, Rich Gordon, Dodo Photography, Jeffrey Holycross, Paul Moore, James Coble, Arkady Elterman, Simon Moss, Bryan McConachie, Michael Toal, The Assyrian Voice Network, James MacArthur, Stephen Williams, Andrew Wren, Tom Davis, Joaquin Mills, Don't point it at your face, Robert Luck, James Evans, Thomas Finlay, Mr. Bubbles, Surreal Killer, Simon Britton, Joe Chidzik, Paul Wood, MissLeah, Cian Hanrahan, Rigamortis.
