When the internet blew up in the middle 1990s, there were all kinds of grandiose plans for how this new technology could be used for music. One such plan was Musicmaker, an American company that wanted to sell fans custom compilation CDs back in 1996.
The idea was that it would license recordings from labels and then charge users about 10 bucks for the first five songs and a buck a song thereafter. A CD would be considered “full” after 70 minutes of music was selected. The CDs were manufactured and packaged in Virginia and then sent to the purchaser through the mail.
Pretty quaint today—especially considering that Musicmaker probably had no more than 150,000 songs available for purchase (most of which were from indie labels)—but it was a good try. It would eventually be eclipsed by the iTunes music store. No more custom-burned CDs in the mail.
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