"It's "gone", MacReady." - an anamnesis of LaunchCast

5365 songs, 667 Albums, 628 Artists, about 5 years. Those are the numbers and the amount of time it took for me to "rate" my music on LaunchCast (later bought by Yahoo and then known as either LaunchCast, launch.yahoo.com or music.yahoo.com).

It was a great, neat, little system. The more things you rated the more often you heard your higher-rated music. Yet, the system also required that something like 30% of the songs be things you hadn't yet rated giving you access to new music, etc. But, it's now gone.

I shoulda seen the warnings - all the news stories (apparently) in early December about how CBS online radio was going to acquire it - but I didn't. I thought life was just fine and kept on rating music these last 6 weeks or so.

Sure, there's still a "LaunchCast" or a "YahooMusic!" powered by CBS or whatever the bastardization they have up there now is (they've kept the same color scheme and layout). But, it's like "New" Coke - it's NOT Coke and it's not LaunchCast. The rankings no longer work, the system no longer works - it's "gone" MacReady.

LaunchCast - you shall be missed.