There was a day when AOL served as the gateway to the internet for the average user. However, time went on and the web portal was reduced from must have, to training wheels, to an object of derision. While the media giant remains a massive company by most standards, it’s an absolute shadow of what it once was.
As such, it’s no shock that some of the company’s sites have been terminated. Several AOL music sites, such as The Boot, The Boombox, Noisecreep, Spinner and the inventively named AOL Music have been shuttered as well. Comic book news site ComicsAlliance is also one of the victims of this multiple-site shutdown, and on a personal note, that’s a blow to me as I considered it a daily read.
Don’t think that AOL is done with music though. AOL Radio, a music streaming and discovery service a la Pandora and Rdio, lives on. While it absolutely sucks for the employees of the shut down services, this is a perfect example of how the internet evolves. Having multiple music platforms that effectively compete against each other may be okay when you’re the alpha, but when you find yourself in the position of being the underdog, you need to think like one.
The question is, has AOL reorganized musically in time or is this an example of missing a cue?
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