Domain investors will be eligible to acquire so-called Service Names.
The .music domain name registry has introduced a new category of domain names called Service Names. These names don’t have traditional nexus requirements, making them easier for anyone to register.
Most .music domains require registrants to demonstrate a direct connection to the music industry and the specific name they wish to register. This prevents domain investors from buying them and has significantly limited broader participation.
Although over 30,000 .music domains have been registered, only around 8,000 are currently in the zone because the others don’t have completed verifications.
Service Names are intended for commercial and business purposes. They come without the nexus rules that apply to regular .music domains. This allows domain investors and others without a connection to music to register the domains.
The registry has placed the best Service Names into a Platinum bucket. These include names like ai.music, digital.music, and store.music.
Platinum domains are being auctioned in a sealed-bid format with bids due by midnight UTC on June 29.
Less valuable names are being auctioned in four weekly intervals, with the first auction starting this week. Most of the names are two-word names, such as BestSoul.music, EMDlinks.music, and FreeIndie.music.
These auctions start at $199 and $299.
All bidding takes place at auction.music, where a downloadable list of names is available.
So…if you merely try to register an available name that has not been placed in such auctions, you are still going to be subject to that narrow and restrictive requirement?
Even if you have not intention of placing it for sale as a “domainer” and only want to explore some type of bona fide commercial use?
Yes/no?
In case anyone hasn’t seen my other comments as “John” under other posts, I’m ~100% a true end user for years now, barely .2% or less still ever seeking to sell a domain. I even (invisibly) make the DNJ list as the buyer sometimes. I started in 2001.
As a bona fide end user with NO intention of trying sell a .music and every intention of using one or two in good faith as a true music-affinity commercial user, I’ve hated this draconian implementation from the start and if I had known about how this Rousso fellow intended to implement something as great as .music ahead of time I would have spoken abundantly against him and his company being approved for it long before that ever happened.
But a “no” to what I asked above would be good enough now, though I surely doubt it’s “no.”
PS: It’s not rocket science. This could have been done *very* differently to prevent hoarding for resale by “domainers.”
PPS – one more thing: this great and important TLD should also be available for the various kinds of *societally valuable* figurative, symbolic and metaphorical good faith uses one could use it for, not just only and literally for “music.” Just like so many other new gTLDs are.
John,
I agree with you that .MUSIC is a “great and important TLD” and understand where you are coming from when you say that .MUSIC “should also be available for the various kinds of *societally valuable* figurative, symbolic and metaphorical good faith uses one could use it for, not just only and literally for music.”
.MUSIC is not “just like so many other new gTLDs.” This is a community-based domain name that is intended to serve the legitimate interests of the global music community with music-tailored policies. Every policy has been publicly disclosed since 2012 when our application was submitted to ICANN. We are not an open string like other TLDs and the benefits we provide are a FIRST for the music industry:
No cybersquatters: check. Verified artists in over 100 countries: check. No AI impersonators: check. Legal and safe: check. Free SmartBadge, free SmartPage, free verified email…: check. All with your .MUSIC domain. We are continuously adding value. We are only getting started and my team and I are working around the clock 24/7 to deliver value beyond merely the name.
There are always trade off. We recognize that in order to be different to .COM and other TLDs that it begins with policies that work for music, building infrastructure and adding value beyond the name itself. Quality is paramount. We cannot be everything to everyone but we can be everything music. I do understand where you are coming from though.
When it comes to these service names offered at AUCTION.MUSIC, it is an opportunity to claim rare and scarce premium generic .MUSIC names without nexus requirements since they are geared for generic descriptive use relating to music. This is what makes them valuable and different. If you want to spend serious money acquiring a premium domain like TICKETING.MUSIC or STREAMING.MUSIC then it would make perfect sense that the business model and content/use would relate to music associated with TICKETING or LICENSING with the badge of trust, legitimacy and authenticity that only .MUSIC provides in comparison to other TLDs in relation to music.
If you have any suggestions, you can always reach out to me directly. Always open to ideas on how we can improve .MUSIC. We are constantly innovating and adding as many value adds as we can for .MUSIC registrants. We ain’t going anywhere. My goal is focused on adding as much value to .MUSIC as possible and to our registrants.
Appreciate the feedback
Constantine Roussos
.MUSIC