Dutch service Fabchannel, the live online concert recordings site, is shutting down. Fabchannel specialised in concert videos and only early last year signed an agreement with Universal Music to distribute live recordings of their artists worldwide.
Fabchannel is no means a failure, launched in 2000 by Justin Kniest, the company has been running successfully for over 9 years. With 900+ live performances ranging from live music to debates and lectures – the site has seen a strong growth and brought a great a deal of enjoyment to its devoted members.
Unfortunately, despite the agreement with Universal Music, Kniest and his team have had little luck convincing other labels to sign similar contracts leaving little potential for future growth.
On their homepage, Kniest leaves a parting message of thanks.
After nine passionate and beautiful years of sharing the most amazing concert recordings with you, Fabchannel is stopping. A great number of record labels still won’t allow us to record their artists. This prevents us from offering what we need to keep Fabchannel alive.
We want to sincerely thank you for all support through the years! It has been an amazing time, but unfortunately this is where it ends.
With a bleeding heart we’re pulling the plug of our online archive Friday 13th of March. Until that time, enjoy your favorite concerts and who knows we’ll meet again.
Justin Kniest, CEO
Interesting post, I did not know this existed. Will have a look, not sure I understood their way of making money.
Thank you for announcing this on Twitter.
WTF? Well that’s a bummer. My favorite site to watch live shows.
Big record companies would be better of if they they just bought a guillotine and called it a night.
It’s a pity that something like Fab has to close down, but it has shown that I there is a big possibilty that something like this is the future fpr live concert registration.
Look at the cross selling and database marketing possibilties it has. Curious how this will evolve..
have him contact me. It’s not over until its over