Total Music was a digital music distribution service created by

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

and

Sony BMG Sony BMG Music Entertainment was an American record company owned as a 50–50 joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann. The venture's successor, the revived Sony Music, is wholly owned by Sony, following their buyout o ...

. It was started in 2007 and closed down in 2009. The venture never actually resulted in any products or services used by consumers. Total Music was initially conceived as a subscription service which would offer downloads of

DRM DRM may refer to: Government, military and politics * Defense reform movement, U.S. campaign inspired by Col. John Boyd * Democratic Republic of Madagascar, a former socialist state (1975–1992) on Madagascar * Direction du renseignement militair ...

-laden audio files to consumers. The subscription was to be incorporated into the price of digital audio playback devices; consumers would buy the device and get a "free" subscription, enabling access, for a limited time, to the participating

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

s' catalogs. This plan was scrapped when an anti-trust inquiry by the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

in early 2008 expressed concern that the major record companies were colluding to provide an unfair advantage to Total Music. Total Music was then conceived as a streaming service to be incorporated into social networking sites—particularly

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

—in a model similar to what was already in place through agreements between the record companies and MySpace: in exchange for user data and advertising revenue, Total Music would grant the social network a license to use the participating labels' music. To provide a back end, Total Music acquired

Ruckus Network Ruckus was a free ad-supported online music service available to students at all American colleges. The service was founded in 2003 by Vincent Han and David Galper. It was acquired in 2008 by Total Music, a joint venture between Sony and Unive ...

, and

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

was brought on to add to Universal and Sony BMG's catalog, but

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "Record label#M ...

, the remaining major label, did not want to participate. More importantly, Total Music was unable to get Facebook to agree to hand over user data and ad revenue. Layoffs ensued, and Ruckus was closed down. Soon after, Total Music itself was shuttered. In its final months, the company also experimented with providing a streaming service widget for websites and blogs. The widget never made it out of

beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represe ...

References

* Mnookin, Seth (November 27, 2007)
"Universal's CEO Once Called iPod Users Thieves. Now He's Giving Songs Away".
''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

''. *Kincaid, Jason (February 7, 2009)
"The Record Industry’s TotalMusic Experiment Is Sinking Fast".
''

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. I ...

''.
"Confirmed: TotalMusic Is Dead".
*Michaels, Sean (February 8, 2008)
"Total Music initiative sparks anti-trust investigation".
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. *Bruno, Antony (February 10, 2009)
"Total Music Shuts Down".
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Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

''. Online music database clients