San Diego - AnywhereCD, an online retailer started by MP3.com founder Michael Robertson that bundles MP3 albums along with physical CDs, will shut down at the end of the month, Robertson said in a post on his blog.

The closure of the store coincides with the expiration of AnywhereCD's contract with Warner Music, with whom the company had traded lawsuits over the terms of a contract to sell Warner Music titles as MP3 albums.

AnywhereCD failed to attract interest from the other major labels for its service.

Robertson related that after meeting with all the majors, one had a "wait and see" attitude, one "wanted millions of dollars up front," and one "asked me if I would embed the purchaser's credit card number in the song files they bought."

AnywhereCD is now holding an "Everything Must Go!" sale, offering its stock of physical CDs plus an MP3 version of the album for $7 or less.

"The AnywhereCD concept was quite simple: create an online store where customers could get the immediacy of digital files along with the permanence and familiarity of a physical CD," Robertson wrote at MichaelRobertson.com.

"For one purchase price they would get the best of both worlds, with no need to take any extra steps just to get a MP3 file to play on their player. Sounds great in theory, but I wasn't able to pull it off."

Related Links:
http://www.michaelrobertson.com

http://www.anywherecd.com