If you really want some insight into what's going on in Music City relative to the shutdown of echo, check out the June 12th article by Craig Havighurst from the String Theory Media blog. Although Dierks Bentley's new website is going through some major challenges right now--two different websites, unsavory/unmoderated posts, login issues, etc.--it could be worse. DB could have been one of the artist's who faced "darknet", or no website at all.
I heard from DBC reps who talked to Dierks at the Kansas City show, that Dierks is making sure the two new sites turn back into one "dierks.com" website. Thank you, Dierks! The sooner the better!
darknet: echo artist clients face imminent web shut-downWhen news broke in April that Echomusic of Nashville (popularly known as echo) was being closed by parent company Ticketmaster Entertainment, it was reported (all too briefly) as a story of some 60 lost jobs on Music Row. What hasn’t been reported is that early next week, on June 15-18, between 100 and 200 echo clients – most of them small or mid-level, independent or indie-label bands and artists – will see their websites go dark with no refunds and no ability to transfer their sites seamlessly to another host.
The echo platform, touted by the company for years as a unique integration of web site, e-mail list, merchandise sales and fan connection tools, was built on an architecture so proprietary and one-of-a-kind that sites “powered by echo” must be re-built from scratch. This is according to current and former Echo employees, as well as artist managers who are currently scrambling to rescue their artists’ vital presence on the web.Click here for the entire article and interesting comments by former echo employees.
