Social.FM
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Social.FM, formerly Mercora, helped users discover music through their social networks and a peer-to-peer music-search service.
02 / Social.FM FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Mercora's own shutdown notice gave no reason beyond 'The Company is unfortunately no longer in business.' Contemporary commentary pointed to the economics of licensed music streaming: webcasting royalty rates had been raised the year before while advertising rates for such services were poor to begin with—an environment in which few free music services could survive.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Music service ended
The company’s notice stated that the system would close on 31 July 2008 because the company was no longer operating.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Service shut down July 31, 2008 (Wikipedia records defunct as of August 4, 2008).
- 02
No reliable company-level loss figure disclosed.