Cruxy was first envisioned back 2004 as something called “DigiPay” and then “OpenVision”, and then ultimately Cruxy, a crossroads of creativity and commerce. Cruxy is also a rock climbing term for a very difficult climbing problem to solve, like perhaps when you have to cling from your fingertips to a horizontal rock shelf and pull yourself up, sweating, planning and thinking the entire way. That’s a bit how the last four+ years have felt… and we are exhausted.
Jon and Nate in Brooklyn, 2006
Jon and I set out to bring creative people making digital works closer to their audiences, and give them powerful tools to distribute and monetize their content online in any format, price or online venue (blog, virtual world, website, mobile phone) they thought was best for their product. It was a distributed market, meant to empower thousands of other sites, as opposed to trying to own a single audience.
The good news is that while Cruxy never really broke through in the way we hoped, the world, including Apple & iTunes, has shifted to embrace some of the ideals we have always had - open formats, more ways to distribute and promote online, more avenues for niche content to be discovered and heard. People today are watching long-form HD video online (though still much of it is content repurposed from mainstream networks for sites like Hulu.com), downloading podcasts and mashing up and sharing their own original creativity like never before. Rock stars like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are completely destroying myths about how the “music industry” should work, while independent musicians like Jonathan Coulton, are proving that through hard work, creativity and ingenuity, that you can quit your day job.
Jon, Nate and Will at the Cruxy Cantina event in 2007
The world has changed for the better, and we are glad for that, but at some point we have to admit, Cruxy is not needed or used by enough people for us to keep going. While we have had an amazing cloud-based business model since day #1 that actual made sense and worked, thanks to my brilliant, co-founder Jon Oakes, we were never able to scale our business up with enough volume to allow us to make an actual living. Our technology platform, built by the incomparable Will Meyer, was a great success in my mind, being one of the first to fully embrace Amazon’s cloud and provide a widget-based commerce system that actually worked!
With all that said, I (Nathan) sent out the letter below, on behalf of the Cruxy team, to our top artists and sellers…
I am writing to let you know that we are going to stop purchases on Cruxy in one week (March 18th), and then ultimately shutdown the service on April 1. All final payouts to you will be made then.
It has been pretty obvious that we haven’t been able to maintain the high level of service we’d like, and to be honest, it is because none of us can commit the time necessary to making the site work as it should anymore. It just isn’t fair to you or the customers to represent our site as being “open for business” when it barely is. This was a very difficult decision as Cruxy has been 100% built and funded by a very small, passionate team. However, times are tough everywhere, whether online or offline, and we need to come to terms with that.
We really appreciate all of the traffic and business you’ve brought to Cruxy, and are writing you directly because we recognize that, and want to make the transition as smooth as possible. We can keep your pages and links up through March, but we will just be turning off the “BUY” option. This way you can provide an alternate link to direct customers to your download destination.
https://www.payloadz.com/ or http://www.e-junkie.com/ are both excellent services that you should be able to migrate over to pretty quickly. We also recommend http://Blip.tv or http://Vimeo.com for hosting high-resolution video (though not for sale).
Drop.io, another Brooklyn-based service, also has an interesting service for paid downloads called PayWall: http://drop.io/paywall
If you have any other ideas or questions about how we can make this process work, let me know. Again, you have been an amazing community of creative artists and digital makers, and we wish you the best in your artistic and business efforts moving forward.
Thanks, everybody, for all of your support. Whatever you do, please keep creating, making, sharing, mashing and living. We need art and inspiration in these times, like never before.
Here’s an early “Best of Cruxy” montage… special thanks to all of you who have been with us since the very early days.
and course, the incomparable HowToDoTheRobot.com crew….
+Nathan
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I remember when you guys first started. All these ideas we now see around us were non-existent. Independent creators using the web to sell their creations and self-distribute. I also remember when you started using Amazon for hosting–totally new.
One good thing always leads to another….so look forward to your next project. Start fresh!
Hi Nat and John
I guess I could tell you weren’t spending much time here lately—through your own page Jon, seem to have lost interest—did you think of trying to join with another (similar site)? or sell it on?
google adds— are the money provider for many sites like this!!!
If Money was the object you are in the same boat as 90% of music sites—anyway we have had a lot of plays here— and we will miss this audience—-we were never in it to make money here, so I guess that is why we are surprised!!!
I guess your minds are made up —so thanks for the memory
Rob Barrer
Hi Again!!
INDIE MUSIC SITE!!!!
For those Musos here—————-looking for another excellent outlet????
“FREE” site to join where you can sell your music—— or opt in to pay per play!!!
the Independent Artist Company——get added to internet radio stations!!!!!!
http://www.iacmusic.com
we would be happy to show you the ropes
cheers Rob
Hey, Rob, thanks for being a long time user. Definitely enjoyed seeing Silverwood pop-up with new uploads and page updates… money WAS the object, in that we wanted to help artists make money from their creativity. We were about more than just “plays” and really wanted commerce to happen, since in the end, you’ve to pay the bills, buy the strings, pay for the recording studio or equipment, etc….
Hey Guys,
Just saw this up at TechCrunch and wanted to drop by to say you guys shoudl be proud of what you did here. Maybe it is timing or something, but I thought you had a good product here. Drop me a line with more info, maybe we can still keep cruxy moving along in a more low key mode.
Best of luck in everything you do in the future.
Shannon
Nathan,
Thanks for getting back to me regarding my login issues. I was not aware that Cruxy was shutting down soon and do not read this blog often. I have some filmmaker friends who used this service and introduced me to it a long time ago. Although my sales were minimal, I know of some who have had much success with Cruxy. Therefore, you guys have done a great thing here for independent artists. If you need additional funding for any new projects or websites, try looking into Project Wonderful. It is a fairly new website that has not been loaded with too many spammers or large corporate companies that takeover the majority of the revenue so it may be a way to raise funds for your new project by signing up as a publisher. Most of the people who use it seem to be in the area of Anime or Web Comics and the flip side to that has been lots of craft artists.
Hi guys, I have been following Cruxy for a while, and have always thought that you had a great idea. For my business though, I would have liked a privately-branded site that worked like Cruxy but was my own. I think the software that you developed that powered Cruxy would be a hit if it were made available to purchase and use on sites that have video and audio products available ( I have several like that). Best of luck on future endeavors!
This is really sad news. We had frequently referred musicians at our http://www.WhitewaterRocks.com venue to Cruxy to give them another online venue to publish their music.
We’re in New Braunfels, Texas but still feel we are a great part of the Austin Texas music scene. At a time when we all rely on new and inventive ways to market music on the Internet, it is a real shame when a great resource like Cruxy fades to black.
Did you consider reaching out to your supporters to see if there was any interest in having someone else take over operations of Cruxy.com? As community, I think we’d all support some sort of transition that would still keep this great resource active.
hi guys
just a wee note to say sorry to see you go and wish you all the very best for yur next projects etc - thanks for cruxy
best regards
d
Let the video and audio version of Cruxy be available on web sites.It will prove better.