8tracks' final days, and how to grab the playlists you ❤️

Hi {NAME}, Here is your playlist archive. [8tracks]() Hello {NAME}, 8tracks has had a long run and its day in the sun. We're sad to announce, however, that the company and its streaming service will wind down with the end of the decade, on December 31st, 2019. We have mixed feelings as we round out this decade and the life of 8tracks. We served many listeners and DJs well, at important times in their lives, for more than a decade, introducing adventurous listeners to new artists they may never have otherwise discovered, and for that we're proud. On the other hand, we recognize we've disappointed many listeners and DJs, employees, investors and partners. We all wish we'd had the opportunity to continue to innovate in the music sector and serve our community and other stakeholders well, just as we had in our earlier years. I've described [our 137-month journey in a lengthy blog post](. While the post also explains why we're shutting down, the TL;DR is that we're winding down because we're nearly out of cash and can't afford to pay the royalties owed to rightsholders. We've fallen behind in royalty payments because our revenues have declined as a result of a steady drop in listening activity, which is in turn largely due to Spotify's cannibalization of our audience with ever-better lean-back playlist offerings (like Discover Weekly) and its ability to offer listeners both lean-back and on-demand streaming "under one roof." The fundamental economics of the sector make it difficult, if not impossible, to sustain a small- or medium-sized steaming music service. [While we thought we could prove this prevailing wisdom wrong](, we were unable to find a path to raise sufficient funding (or a good home for the company) in order to double down on 8tracks' unique value proposition vis-a-vis market leaders Spotify, Apple, Google/YouTube and Amazon. However, we want to give you the opportunity to migrate any 8tracks playlists you've created or liked to your second-favorite music streaming service ; ) - If you've ever published a playlist on 8tracks, you'll find all the relevant details in this email, below my signature line, including the mix name, art, description and tracklist for each. - In addition, on [8tracks.com](, you can now export any 8tracks playlist to Spotify by clicking the "Save playlist to Spotify" button included on top of the mix art (or save the tracklist to a .txt file). This process isn't perfect, as some tracks aren't available on Spotify, and others are available but aren't matched to Spotify's catalog. But 80-90% of tracks in a given playlist should match, for most genres. Note that we can't make any assurance as to how long the website may remain up and running, so please act now if you'd like to migrate your favorite playlists over to Spotify. Thank you for your support over the years! Happy listening and happy holidays! Best, David --------------------------------------------------------------- [Unsubscribe from emails]( © 8tracks Inc. 51 Sharon St, San Francisco, CA 94114, USA