As iTunes celebrated its 10th anniversary, an even older digital music brand was closing down: Spinner. The closure of the music portal – which started life in the late 1990s as an internet radio broadcaster – was part of a wider purge by AOL within its music division which also saw The Boot, Noisecreep, The Boombox and AOL Music itself shut down, with staff live-tweeting the layoff process as it happened on Friday. “Well, we all just got laid off. AOL Music is finished,” tweeted editor Dan Reilly, with the official Spinner account adding “All of AOL Music is shutting down. Thank you all for your support. We had such a blast.” The AOL Radio service lives on – “we will continue to be bringing you the best music experience” in another tweet – but for digital music veterans, it’s the closure of Spinner that may prompt some nostalgia. Including for the days when an internet radio company could be bought (along with tech startup Nullsoft) for a cool $400m – the deal that brought Spinner to AOL in June 1999.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…