I recently got a call from CBS asking if I was interested in buying the MP3.com domain name. MP3.com was the digital music pioneer I founded which took the company public on NASDAQ in 1999 and eventually sold to Vivendi/Universal for about $400 million.
There's no denying it's a memorable and historic domain name. But creating a viable business requires more than just a domain name. It's not a shortcut to success. Most of the huge net successes have wacky, made-up terms — Google, eBay, PayPal, Skype, Facebook.
MP3.com's success was predicated on what we did after you got to the domain — offering full song MP3 downloads when others only had 30 second clips. Those decisions led to MP3.com's dominance, not the short domain name.
I politely declined to place a bid. They mentioned they'd already received an unsolicited 7-digit offer. I was surprised since I simply don't see the value — but those looking for a shortcut in business will spend stupid money on a domain name.
--MR
