ALANIS GIVES UP ON MP3.com? November 28 2000 dotmusic.com Morissette sells her shares... again Alanis Morissette is slowly ridding herself of her stake in online music portal MP3.com, in a move that could reflect badly on the company. Morissette got her hands on nearly 330,000 MP3.com shares back in April 1999 as part of a cross-promotion whereby MP3.com sponsored her tour. In June 2000, at which time her MP3.com shares were worth around $4 million in total, Alanis made a filing with the US Securities and Exchange commission announcing her intention to sell 100,000 of the shares. She has since sold 90,000 more MP3.com shares and on Tuesday made another filing with the Securities and Exchange commission detailing plans to sell a further 70,000, leaving herself with only 70,000 shares remaining in the unsigned bands site. The news, to which MP3.com have released no comment, comes at a make-or-break time for the company. MP3.com has already given away $130 million in damages to record companies and has been forced to pay punishing per-download fees for the songs broadcast as part of its My.MP3.com streaming locker service. And after an announcement that Universal Records managed to negotiate a better deal, the other four major labels are now reported to be considering demanding an increased payout themselves. MP3.com could ultimately give more than 25% of itself away to the major labels in shares. MP3.com's shares have slid from an all-time high of $105 each to around $7 each now. The fact that Alanis has decided to sell yet again cannot bode well for the company- as an artist and music industry insider it seems clear that Morissette (or her accountant) has little faith in the company's ability to thrive and raise its share price. comment on this article e-mail this to a friend start a discussion [about i-drive] writing index thoughts dotmusic index Problems? Questions? Suggestions? Contact me: mail@tobyslater.com back to top back to home page

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