.Music

Most people are familiar with .com, .net, .org, or .gov basic suffixes for internet web pages. The nonprofit group Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) has proposed to add new endings for webpages according to a NYtimes.com article.

These suffixes give more incite on what the website contains, unlike the mysterious .com. Examples listed in the article are .movie, .tickets, .multifuctional; and of course, .music.

To put it simply, this just means that instead of your favorite artist’s page ending in .com, it would end in .music. It makes sense and seems easy, but it could go a bit too far.

The article brings up a few issues with this new .music suffix. One, and the main focus of the article, is who will own this title. Another is the so-called “land grab” this will bring. My own is how much is too much?

The article says that there are eight different companies bidding to own the .music suffix. Among them are a group backed by the RIAA and many other big names in the music industry; a company, oddly enough, named .MUSIC; Google; and Amazon. Naturally, it would make sense for something of this nature to go to a company related to the RIAA. It only makes sense.

With the “land grab” in effect, it may be possible for bands to lose their ideal domain name due to someone buying them all up. Some people may try to secure the domain name and sell it to the artist it would belong to for more money. Something to this tune has already happened in the Internet world. Since then laws have been made to protect companies from this.

Now, how far is too far? The article says that a great number of these suffix ideas are being proposed. The .multifuctional suffix mentioned leads me to think that these may become too detailed and become more complicated than need be.

Overall, I think it could be a good idea if used sparingly. It could possibly open up the same domain name with different suffixes for different types of media. An example would me a movie and a band with the same name. One would be .music and the other .movie.  

Reference:

Sisario, B. (2012, June 13). Digital notes: Plans for a new music suffix, but who will own it?. Retrieved from http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/digital-notes-plans-for-a-new-music-suffix-but-who-will-own-it/?ref=recordingindustryassociationofamerica