One of the first Russian digital music stores will close

According to Kommersant, the Russian holding company “IFD-Kapital” decided to freeze the project Muz.ru, which was one of the first domestic online music stores. The reason for this step was unprofitable enterprises due to the high level of piracy. Based on the information provided by Kartoteka.ru, for the period from 2012 to 2014, the store's revenue amounted to 16.08 million rubles, and the annual net loss was incomparably higher: in 2012 - 48.64 million rubles, in 2013 - 37, 21 million rubles, and in 2014 - 34.98 million rubles.

The resource was launched in 2009, and investment in the project amounted to about $ 6 million. Initially, the site had content from the largest foreign copyright holders, including Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony Music. However, by 2015, only about 60 contracts remained in the company's arsenal, and almost all of them were concluded with domestic rightholders. By the time of closing, 450 thousand users were registered on the site. Only 25 thousand people had a positive balance on accounts, and all the money would be returned.

According to Konstantin Bogdanov, Director General of Muz.ru, to the temporary closure of the project led to a high level of competition from pirated sites. He said that when creating the resource, its founders had great hopes for an effective fight against piracy. However, despite attempts by the authorities to tighten the policy of protecting the rights of rights holders, piracy is flourishing in Russia, and its level has decreased slightly in recent years. At the same time, considerable funds are spent on licensing the content of the store, and the legal resources of the domestic market are developing in the conditions of the toughest competition, fighting for the attention of the audience, which, moreover, does not have a high solvency. Konstantin Bogdanov himself assures that the service is not completely closed, but only preserves "until the situation improves both in the economy and in the legal field."
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According to Boris Golikov, general director of the portal Fidel.ru, which was closed in 2012, the policy of copyright holders, which creates obstacles to the development of digital distribution in the domestic market, is to blame for the current situation and the departure of online music online stores.