Justin Ouellette, the founder of Muxtape, recently posted an update detailing his past dealings with record labels trying to keep Muxtape running, as well as the future of the site after receiving notice from the RIAA:
Over the next week I learned a little more, mainly that the RIAA moves quite autonomously from their label parents and that the understanding I had with them didn’t necessarily carry over. I also learned that none of the labels were especially interested in helping me out, and from their perspective it had no bearing on the negotiations. I disagreed. The deals were still weeks or months away (an eternity on the internet) meaning that at best, Muxtape was going to be down until the end of year.
It’s amazing to me that the RIAA would completely ignore the fact that the labels apparently wanted to work with Justin and Muxtape. Well, I guess it should be amazing to me, but unfortunately this seems to be business as usual for the RIAA. It is a little surprising that the labels don’t seem to have much say over what the RIAA. Who’s running who?