Well, I can’t pretend that I am surprised – Datz have finally gone bust according to a story on MusicWeek. Having written about the problems with the service on a number of occasions (here and here) it seemed inevitable. Given that so many other companies have struggled with paying the fees to the music labels Datz were always going to struggle with their model – particularly as they couldn’t make deals with all the major labels meaning that there was only a limited catalogue available.
I have to say that the writing has been on the wall from the day that I signed up when I was told by the person who sold me the service that their business model assumed that people would download only 300 tracks in their years subscription but that the average was running at 700 tracks. An all that you can eat download service is bound to appeal to those that like to download and so 300 tracks was always going to be a low target. I know that in the ten months I have the service I downloaded many more than both their 300 estimate and the 700 higher level.
On the one hand I am sorry for Datz as I know how difficult it can be for a small business to make it but then again they promised much and delivered little.