Subscription music download service drip.fm closes

Music distribution service Drip.fm is closing.

Drip created a paid music subscription service that artists could use as-a-service. Alt.rock weirdsters They Might Be Giants were one customer and used the site to offer downloads of the song-a-week released as part of the group's revived Dial-A-Song offering.

The site's founders have committed to paying out all artists who used the service, but say some introspection led them to close the site.

“At the top of the year we took a hard look at Drip, our future, and the various routes we could take to get there,” says a death notice on Medium. “Between timing, funding, and everything needed to realize this future, we made the decision that now was the time for Drip to come to a conclusion.”

So passes one of many attempts to find a way to make music pay in the digital age.

Users have until March 18th to download all their music and other content. The difficulty of doing so may be one reason the site's closing: users could only download one file at a time, as .ZIP files. For Dial-A-Song that meant weekly visits to the site and rather more curation than your correspondent found convenient.

There's an FAQ about the closure here for the afflicted. ®