Fabchannel.com was a Dutch company that aimed to give attention to artists unrecognized by the

mass media Mass media include the diverse arrays of media that reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit information electronically via media such as films, radio, recorded music, or television. Digital media comprises b ...

. The project was founded by Justin Kniest in 2000 in collaboration with internet service provider

XS4ALL XS4ALL was an Internet service provider (ISP) in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1993 as an offshoot of the Hacker (computer security), hackers club Hack-Tic by Felipe Rodriquez, Rop Gonggrijp, Paul Jongsma and Cor Bosman, while based in Amster ...

and broadcast facility company N.O.B. The website streamed free, live, and on-demand video from the Paradiso,

Melkweg Melkweg (Dutch for "Milky Way") is a music venue and cultural center on Lijnbaansgracht, near Leidseplein in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is housed in a former dairy and includes four music halls as well as a cinema, a restaurant and an exhibitio ...

venues in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

The Roxy Theatre The Roxy Theatre (often just the Roxy) is a nightclub on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California, owned by Lou Adler and his son, Nic. History The Roxy was opened on September 20, 1973, by Elmer Valentine and Lou Adler, along with ...

venue in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. With more than 900 live concerts, festivals, performances, debates and lectures, Fabchannel.com built a substantial concert

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

archive, their claim of being 'the largest concert video archive in the world' however being an exaggeration, given the far larger archives developed by major broadcasters such as BBC. In April 2007 Fabchannel announced that it has launched its own channel on

Joost Joost () was an Internet TV service, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa). During 2007–2008 Joost used peer-to-peer TV ( P2PTV) technology to distribute content to their Mozilla-based desktop player; ...

, an online TV distribution platform. This channel, ''The Best Of Fab'', shows a selection of the archive. In November 2007, the city of Amsterdam and Foreman Capital each took a 25% share in Fabchannel. The city of Amsterdam paid 1.25 million euro for the share. In February 2008 Fabchannel and Universal Music Netherlands announced a recording and multi-territory digital exploitation partnership for concert videos. This was a breakthrough for Fabchannel as this meant Fabchannel was able to record and stream concerts of artists signed by Universal. Despite this deal, the business model underlying Fabchannel proved difficult to maintain, with no clear source of direct revenue from the end users (viewers), and with copyright holders (artists and/or record labels) being reluctant to allow premium value content to be streamed for free. Moreover, notwithstanding tight security measures, Fabchannel content got pirated on places like YouTube and Peer-to-Peer filesharing networks. On March 6, 2009, Kniest announced that the site would be shutting down the following Friday, March 13. In an email to subscribers titled "Fabchannel Stops." Kniest wrote:

Awards

*Spin Award: Winner Best Dutch Website Concept of 2003 * EuroPrix.nl: Overall Winner Best Dutch E-Content Production 2005 *Prix Europa: Winner Best European Website 2005 *

Webby Awards The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...

: Winner Best Music Website 2006 *

Musikexpress The ''Musikexpress'' is a monthly German magazine that mainly writes about the rock and pop music. In addition to detailed interviews and articles about important rock, electro, hip-hop, pop, and independent musicians, the magazine offers review ...

Style Award: Winner Best Media 2007 *W3 Silver Award: Winner 2007 *Best Dutch entertainment website of the year 2008

References

External links

*{{usurped,
I want my Fabchannel
} (interview with founder Justin Kniest) Defunct Dutch websites Dutch music websites Internet properties disestablished in 2009 Internet properties established in 2000 Internet television channels Defunct video on demand services