Elbo.ws, one of the first websites that brought music blogging into the mainstream by aggregating content from the best bloggers around the world and making it easier than ever before to find your new favourite band, has announced that it will be closing its doors saying:
With a heavy heart, however, we feel it’s time to turn off the bot.
Elbo.ws launched about the same time as the more widely known Hype Machine, and helped fledgling music bloggers find an audience for their musings, but more importantly helped music find out about new bands and artists that were outside of mainstream radio plays and MTV.
Elbo.ws and the Hype Machine were some of the first sites to take on the hegemony of traditional media by creating a single location where many independent voices in music could get their voices heard, letting music blogs flourish and offering bands a thousands new places to help get the word out about their music.
Elbo.ws has not changed much in the last four years, but what has pushed the company over the edge has been the increasing number of DMCA take-downs they receive – for photography more than music – and the ever decreasing advertising rates seen across the web.
