FightCloud.com to shut down

[wessman]

From my inbox... -Wes

To all FightCloud Newsletter Subscribers,

My partner Charles and I have decided to shut down FightCloud.com, the free music website.

We wanted to give FightCloud newletter subscribers first notice.

There are many reasons why we have decided to do this. The biggest reason for closing FightCloud is due to the millions of people stealing music. It seems that the five major record companies can't control the illegal distribution of music over the internet and the courts don't seem to be in any rush to stop the stealing either.

As long as the stealing of copywritten music continues, FightCloud finds it ludacrous to continue doing business in this area of the entertainment industry.

For those of you who don't realize the magnatude of what is happening on the net, let me give you a quick overview.

There are two major programs/companies that help you steal music, software and movies. Those two programs are named Morpheus and Kazaa. I can log on to Kazaa at any given moment of the day or night and there are over 4 million people trading over 800 million files.

The lunatics definitely are running the asylum. You can get any song, any program, or any movie that your heart desires and it's all free for the taking.

When Charles and I got ready to launch FightCloud we had predicted the demise of Napster. We were right and we had a great launch.

Last year we predicted the fall of record labels so we sent out a press release titled ''The End Of Record Labels As We Know It'' and we were right again.

What we didn't predict was the music industry losing total control again with Morpheus and Kazaa. This totally negates what FightCloud is trying to do. :-)

FightCloud's last day will be April 30th. All FightCloud CDs will continue to be free until this time.

We truly believe that each artist on FightCloud is top quality and each deserve radio airplay and a record deal. We wish them the best and hope that maybe one of you can spread the word about their quality music.

The one thing I am proud to say is that FightCloud always made a profit. We are not closing for financial reasons. We are closing for logical ones.

Thanks for being a customer.

Sincerely,
Jack Scalfani
FightCloud

[Theinfamousone]

Wow, that's sad. But I still don't quite get what the RIAA and Kazaa have to do with it. If they are still making money, what is the problem?

[wessman]

Originally posted by Theinfamousone
Wow, that's sad. But I still don't quite get what the RIAA and Kazaa have to do with it. If they are still making money, what is the problem?

I agree. Reads like a cop-out!

[dr. damn]

Guys, FightCloud.com was a website where they gave away free CDs. They're just blaming KaZaA because their business model was horrible and they went bankrupt. Even without KaZaA, there's no way in hell FightCloud could have stayed in business.

[Theinfamousone]

Originally posted by dr. damn
Guys, FightCloud.com was a website where they gave away free CDs. They're just blaming KaZaA because their business model was horrible and they went bankrupt. Even without KaZaA, there's no way in hell FightCloud could have stayed in business.

I understand that. I'm just saying, if they are making a profit, then what is the problem?

[Psilaxs]

Ok, lemme get this straight, until they shut down, i can give them my mailing address and they will send me a free cd??

How in the hell are they able to do this?
They dont ask for a credit card number, but they do state that the mailing address must be one the credit card companies use to
send bills.

How exactly does this work? Figure i may as well jump on before april

[Skeptikal]

4.x USD shipping and handling... well kinda expensive for mailing a CD... anyway... the CD is "free"... still wonder how they actually make money from that....

[wessman]

Originally posted by Skeptikal
4.x USD shipping and handling... well kinda expensive for mailing a CD... anyway... the CD is "free"... still wonder how they actually make money from that....

It costs about $1.10 at the post office to mail a CD w/ jewel case. Having "ordered" from FightCloud when they first started, I know that all CDs come in a cardboard slip folder (like a vinyl cover and weighs far less than a jewel case). So, given the profit made via shipping mark-up and that all their CD packaging requires only two sides of four-color art, plus that the artists are responsible for recording costs, YES, FightCloud's business model could easily make profit.

And, if one of their artists was picked up by a major label, I'm sure FightCloud would have secured a management/finders fee.

Their blaming of P2P doesn't make sense only because Napster was starting to become the monster it was when FightClould opened shop. Why start a venture if its doom is already evident due to P2P? That's why I said FightCloud's excuse was lame.

It would be my guess that FightCloud was not generating enough customer traffic to the site and/or were not recruiting enough new talent to create return customers.

As for the artists, I found some good stuff in rock and electronic there.

[smashriaamobsters]

FightCloud is another scam. They had a good idea but they decided that we the consumers are stupid so lets treat them stupid.

Here is the scam...
FightCloud claims that they will give you a free CD. They are promoting new unpublished musical groups. Sounds great, yes! Sure send me a "free" CD. OK...

So you go to sign up for your "free" CD and they tell you they want your mailing address same one as your credit card, then press the continue button and your "free "CD is on the way!

So you type in your mailing address and press continue...

Now they ask which credit card (mastercard, visa) you would like to use to get your "free" CD.

"All FightCloud CDs are 100% FREE! You pay $4.95 to cover shipping and handling and FightCloud will ship you your FREE CD."
Their words.

Well the "free" CD costs 5 clams ($4.95) (under the age-old marketing scam of S/H) and in return they will mail your "free" CD to you. Plus they now have your address to sell to all the other wonderful market scammers out there who are dying to fill your mailbox with hundreds of offers for more "free" stuff.

Now if they really wanted to give you free music, why mail it? You could download it. You can download snipits as it is now.

Then it would be free. But for FightCloud to let you download it for free would mean that they couldn't make a profit , right.

So it's not free... it cost 5 bucks.


FightCloud tried to make money off the artist (by charging them a "setup fee"), and off the consumer.

Words from their website:
"FightCloud generates profit off the shipping and handling and splits the profit 50/50 with the artist. This is our PromoPayback™ program."

"FightCloud charges a one time setup fee per artist no matter how many CD you want to promote. "

Why do I care?
I get annoyed at these idiots who dance around their real motives. They're dishonest. They will not be honest and say we will charge you only 5 dollars S/H included! No. That sounds too much. So they connive and say Hey! lets tell the stupid ass consumers that the CD is free and then charge them 5 bucks for S/H. They will never know the difference!

So FightCloud cry me a river! The music you're promoting isn't even in the mainstream yet so no one is stealing it from P2P. Besides, even if it were, if you were giving it away for free, where's the loss dummy? Get a real job and stop blaming the world for your failure, scammer.

[wessman]

I agree with the argument against Fightcloud's use of "Free." And I'm glad many of you recognize "under the age-old marketing scam of S/H," but calling Fightcloud dishonest because they sell your address to mailing lists is basically calling every company in the world dishonest. Am I using the "Well, everybody else does it" justification? Yes, and so are P2P users (like myself) when justifying the innocence of file-sharing.

I'm just saying I agree with many of this thread's comments, but I just wanted to point out that Fightcloud is no different than any other for-profit business online.

[smashriaamobsters]

I realize that selling addresses is a common marketing practice. Actually that's not what I'm considering dishonest. What I'm calling dishonest is the claim that the CD is free when it's not. This too is a common practice. They are not doing anything illegal. Just dishonest.

It's funny that when I signed in to write this, another slide in add told me that I was again the millionth visitor to this website and that I won a prize. Of course I would have to pay over $600 for that prize. HaHaHa Now that's dishonest too. And probably illegal.