Mxtabs
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Mxtabs.net is a music tablature website from 1999, offering free guitar, bass, and drum tablature, in addition to music reviews and instrument lessons. The site shut down in June, 2006 in response to claims made by the MPA about the supposed illegality of music tabs. However, as of the 7th of August, the site has been reinstated again, although no tabs are accessible.
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[edit] History
Mxtabs started out as a hobby drum website in 1999 by a young musician attempting to learn drums. As the site grew in size and popularity, it added subsites for guitar and bass guitar. Users would submit tablature for a song, and that tab would be incorporated into the website. Mxtabs continued to grow, increasing its database to over 150,000 tabs by December 2005, when the Music Publishers' Association threatened websites that provided lyrics or tabs with jail time in addition to fines and shutting the websites down. [1]
However, the MPA took no legal action at that time, only warning that they would begin doing so in 2006. Mxtabs responded on December 26 by taking their entire website offline. Later, the website was changed to simply forward viewers to its affiliate forum, MusicianForums.
On February 23, 2006, the owners of Mxtabs put the website back online with a letter explaining their position. In short, they believe that the purpose of Mxtabs is to "aid musicians in learning their instruments." They say that Mxtabs has accounted for as much as $3000 a month in sheet music sales, and offers many tabs that do not have equivalent sheet music published, so Mxtabs and similar sites are the only place that musicians can find a way to play these songs. The letter concludes by pointing out that tabs have never been proven to be illegal, then requesting that sheet music companies contact Mxtabs in order to create a system of tab licensing.[2]
On June 25, 2006, the administrators of Mxtabs took the tablature offline once more. The website remained up with only one page: their final departing words, a 4 paragraph statement. There was no access to any of the tabs from the site.[citation needed] In their statement they claimed that "...to this date, we have not received any threatening letters, but are closing on our own volition. Mxtabs was reopened in February with the hope of receiving some sort of response; with the lack of that response, it is sadly time to close.".[3]
On August 7th, the website was re-opened, however, the tabs are innaccessable.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Youngs, Ian (2005). Song sites face legal crackdown. bbc.com. Retrieved on March 9, 2006.
- ^ Mxtabs.net staff (2006). An Open Letter. Retrieved on July 27, 2006.
- ^ Mxtabs.net staff (2006). Mxtabs closure note. Retrieved on July 27, 2006.
