Muruch

Muruch is one of the oldest music/mp3 blogs. It was originally created as a personal webpage on iWarp.com (a Freeservers.com subdomain) in June, 1999 by writer Victoria (Vic). It was moved to a Homestead.com subdomain in July, 2000, when a page was added for mp3 links and music recommendations.

A companion mailing list was created on eGroups (bought shortly after by Yahoo Groups) in September, 2000. The list featured general discussion by group members and a weekly "Muruch Mp3s" newsletter by Vic with mp3s, music reviews, and entertainment news. "Muruch Mp3s" was moved back to the Muruch site a few months later, when the site was moved to its own domain. The domain was shut down in July, 2001 and the musical contents of the site were transferred to Blogspot.com (owned by Blogger).

In 2003, the mp3 blog was put on hold when Victoria became moderator of the Livejournal music community Audiogasms. Audiogasms was one of the first major music communities on Livejournal.com, and was the predecessor to several spinoff communities, including Audiography and Balladeers. When Audiogasms closed in early 2004, Muruch returned to Blogger and remained there for the next five years.

In October, 2008, Muruch was one of the many music blogs unfairly censored by Blogger due to false copyright infringement claims by IFPI. A review containing a 100% legal mp3 that posted with the permission of the record label (who held the copyright) was deleted by Blogger without notification. A successful counter claim was filed with Blogger and the post was reinstated in December, 2008, just as another authorized mp3 post was deleted by Blogger for yet another false infringement claim.

In January, 2009, Muruch was once again moved to its own domain thanks to the generous hosting of fellow music blogger Song, By Toad. Later that year, the site began featuring guest posts by Vic's husband, gig reviewers in Chicago and L.A., and a freelancer photographer in Indiana.

Muruch covers a wide variety of musical genres, and contains in-depth reviews of albums, live performances, films, television shows, and literature. It is syndicated on Hype Machine, Elbo.ws and Livejournal, and has been featured on VH1's Best Week Ever Blog, The Woodstock Film Festival website, MSN's Money Central Blog, The Guardian's website and Technorati's Top 100 Music Blogs. Muruch's Musical Mascots: Five artists that Muruch has helped promote more than any other are Allison Crowe, Gaba Kulka (who thanked "Vic" in her album liner notes), Xavier Rudd, The Dresden Dolls (part of Muruch's "demented circus genre"), and Hannah Fury.

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