Muruch
From MusicBlogWiki
Muruch is one of the oldest music blogs. It was originally created in June, 1999 by writer Victoria (Vic) as a personal website, and a page of mp3s and music recommendations was added in July, 2000. In September, 2000, a companion mailing list was created for general discussion and featured a weekly "Muruch Mp3s" post. In July, 2001, the contents of the website were moved to Blogger.
In 2003, the 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. Despite admitting in an email that the claims were invalid, Blogger continued deleting posts by music bloggers.
In January, 2009, Muruch was once again moved to its own domain thanks to the generous hosting of fellow music blogger Song, By Toad.
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, Livejournal, and Twitter, and has been featured on VH1's Best Week Ever Blog, The Woodstock Film Festival website, MSN's Money Central Blog, and The Guardian's website. Muruch's Musical Mascots: Four artists that Muruch has helped promote more than any other are Allison Crowe, Gaba Kulka (who thanked "Vic" in her album liner notes), The Dresden Dolls (part of Muruch's "demented circus genre"), and Hannah Fury.
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