By Richard Menta 10/12/10

It is official. Music search site SkreemR is no more. I received a note last night from company spokesperson James Gagan that confirmed our speculation that the extended downtime of the site was more than just a technical issue. James note is below:

Hi Richard,

Yes, our audio search engine at skreemr.org has been mothballed indefinitely.
The site may return in some form, but probably not as an mp3 search engine.

We had a good run of 3 and a half years, but everyone involved has
other interests and ultimately it was not a hugely profitable
enterprise. So it is time to move onto other things.

However we are proud that we had over 33 million visits to our site
and our API helped power many of the better digital music sites out
there like playlist.com, blip.fm, songza, mixwit and more.

Thanks for the email. I would be happy to answer any other questions
you might have about SkreemR.

regards,
James Gagan

The news comes just a few months after Skreemr had shifted from a straight download engine to one that played the files searched through the browser. Right-click downloads were no longer allowed as the site appeared to be making a concession within an overly-litigeous music environment as a means to settle in for a long run. That run is over.

Of course, companies directly licensing label content for sale to fans aren't faring much better. As Paul Resnikoff pointed out in his Digital Music News article "Wanna Start a Subscription Service? Don't... "

VCs are already frigid when it comes to financing license-dependent startups. So, if your business model depends on four label bosses giving a thumbs up, you're almost guaranteed to lose money in Sand Hill's eyes

Resnikoff also made the observant note that the drug Lipitor Outsold the Entire US Recording Industry In 2009. The major labels are sinking like a stone and while they collectively point to sites like SkreemR as the cause of their troubles their real problems are rooted in an industry that stubbornly clings to 20th century business models a decade into a new millenium. The end result is a disfunctional relationship with their own customers.

Good luck James on your future endeavors.