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Web Sites Bite The Dust

© Steven Lind

Some time ago, one of the Top 5 sites, Country Music Online, in conjunction with it's real-world publication, ceased operation. Earlier in January, CountryCool.Com announced that it would cease operations as well. I'm going to take this opportunity to talk about the future of my site, Country Music Viewpoint, and the impact on my monthly articles here at Suite101. Lastly, we'll take a brief look at a site broadcastng, among other stations, Country Music.

Biting the Dust
CountryCool.Com

CountryCool.Com has been one of my favorite sites for a long time. Having started out presenting recorded interviews with a variety of Country artists, it expanded its scope to become a web portal of sorts by providing a wide range of information and news about the industry. While the press announcement blamed a lack of continued financing, I surmise that it also became a victim of its own expanded objectives. By enlarging its scope, I suspect that it became unfocused and lost the interest of its readership. Bigger is not always better! I guess I'll be looking for a new Top 5 site.

Country Music Viewpoint

While not directly related to the demise of CountryCool.Com, I've been rethinking the objective of Country Music Viewpoint for some time. It's been difficult to find the time needed to bring quality features to the site. Rather than continue to reduce the scope to one or two specific features, I've decided to cease publication. It probably won't happen immediately, but it will happen in the next two months.

What does this mean for this Suite101 column? I plan to begin bringing several of the features from Country Music Viewpoint over to Suite101. I'm beginning with my New Release information; it will appear each month and provide the scheduled releases for that month. Links will be provided to one or more CD purchase sites for additional information on each album. New features will be brought over from time to time. Let me know what you think.

Music Choice

If you've got digital cable or direct broadcast satellite, you've probably heard of Music Choice. Now you can listen to your favorite channels when away from your TV or stereo. Among the choices available over their web site is the "Today's Country" channel. There are several other features to the site, but caution is warranted.

You can join their Backstage Pass and get access to additional channels, including their "Classic Country" channel. You can also get access to artist interviews, countdowns and album previews. What they don't tell you unless you look at the service terms (always a good idea) or get to the third step in registering is that it will cost you $4.95 a year, renewable automatically. While this is not a lot of money, I think the site should be more up-front about the cost.

The copyright of the article Web Sites Bite The Dust in American Country Music is owned by Steven Lind. Permission to republish Web Sites Bite The Dust in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.