Sonific is offline as of tonight (April 30 / May 1) - but we maybe back soon.

As announced and explained last week Sonific is going offline as you read this. This is indeed a sad day for all of us at Sonific, and for our many users, partners and content providers.

Note: if you have embedded a Sonific Songspot music widget on your blog or anywhere else you must now REMOVE IT (i.e. delete the code), otherwise your site visitors will get an error message or just a plain white nothingness-box.

We have received 100s of very supportive mails and encouraging comments from our users and there is quite a bit of blogosphere buzz about the reasons behind Sonific.com's voluntary shutdown (see my favorite snapshots below). One of the most astute comments is by Eliot van Buskirk at the WiredBlog.

If you are interested you can review Sonific's history via our delicious tags, Gerd Leonhard's Sonific-related blog posts, and of course... the wayback machine.

If you are (were) a Sonific user and you have not heard about this unfortunate development until now we apologize for any inconvenience caused, and for our widgets going dead on you. We hope that you can find a good alternative somewhere else; check out this list, or this Music2.0 directory, or (my favorites, even though there are not exactly the same), Project Playlist (freshly sued by the labels * no comment) and Last.fm.  New: a good Social Music Service Provider List is here

Please rest assured that we will not sell your email addresses to some spam outfit, or otherwise exploit your personal data that you have provided when you signed up.

Please note that, for now, Sonific.com and .net is down but the company is not - we are still in the process of evaluating a good many proposals and ideas to bring Sonific back, so... it's not totally over yet. One of the ideas we are investigating is to to return as a 100% user-generated site that allows musicians,  producers, bands, record labels or publishers to upload their music, and any of our users to rate, tag and use it (non-commercially, that is).

If you want to stay informed we recommend that you subscribe to this blog's feed and / or my personal mailing list (Gerd's News). If you want to get in touch with us, for whatever reason, please email me (Gerd Leonhard, CEO).

Anyway, for now, Sayonara, Auf Wiedersehen, Salut, Ciao... Over & Out.

Gerd Leonhard, Co-Founder and CEO

PS: I do have another, even more fictional take on what the future may bring: Music will be SCARCE again. And so valuable. Read more here

from Lofter

And this is my Official Goodbye Video - in case you never got to try Sonific you can watch this:

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Comments

[Cathy]

This is very sad indeed. Your wonderful website not only gave me beautiful music for my blogs, but also led me to purchase music from artists that I never would have known.

[Ann]

You are missed.
The world is quiet, empty, without you.

We keep hoping you will return.
No one offers what sonific does.

[Azzitizz]

I had two blogs with your music on.

So sorry you've had to go, hope you come back soon!

Good Luck and Thanks.

[jenny waring]

i am very sad about this! i had a certain song that i played on my blog. i don't know the artist or the name of the song...and i can't remember the words! strange, because i used to open my blog and play the song while i worked.......i've been searching and searching for it and can't find it anywhere!!!! it is a children's song about still believing in fairy tales!!!

[Gracie Berkshire]

Please sign this petition to bring back Sonific! Show your support for Sonific.com founder Gerd Leonhard!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bringbackSonific/

Let these petition statistics show how we music lovers are from all over the globe and the numerous ways in which we utilized and loved Sonific.com!

[Luna]

Estoy muy triste he perdido toda la musica de mi pàgina, era realmente bella, estoy en duelo..... volver a buscar esa musica en otros sitios....estoy ralmente triste,

[ineedluv]

Sonific has contributed a LOT to express myself more in my blog - through music. I miss the website and I'm so sad that its has been disabled. Hope to visit the website very soon. Thanks a lot SONIFIC... :)

[Rose]

So sad ... I had so many people comment about the great music on my blog. One even told me she'd keep the music playing in the background because she loved the selections so much. At work, I'd log on to my blog and listen with headphones to my music. (One of my favorites is "Crazy Dancing.") So sad ... thank you for the audio joy you brought to my blog. I will really miss you!

[denise lombardozzi]

soooo sad.
i miss you already.
thanks for the joy you brought to me and my blog friends.

midwest usa

[sharon]

I have truly enjoyed the sonific spot on my blog pages and my readers have frequently commented positively about their experiences. It is a sad change.

Thanks for your efforts

[Quimet]

Ooh!
I hope...
Great team!!
cheers from barcelona!!