Strictly speaking, this isn't music news as such. But, if true, it'll have an impact on a fair number of music fans. Rumours are floating about that music aggregator The Hype Machine is to be sold for in the region of $10m to - depending on who you believe - Viacom or, er, someone else.

The Hype Machine aggregates MP3s posted by innumerable music blogs and collects them together so that you, the reader/listener, can enjoy them from one place. You can create and constantly update your own list of favourites (you can seen mine over there on the right), and keep track of what your favourite blogs are posting.

So what would happen to the site if it was bought out by a fairly sizable media conglomeration?

Since it began, the whole music blog phenomenon has skirted with (or just sprinted straight past) the line of illegality, but in recent years it's become co-opted by record companies and music PRs who recognise that it's a valuable way of generating online buzz. There aren't many folk who wait for Radio 1 to give a tune its first play these days - online is where stuff breaks first, and if it does, it shows up at places like Elbo.ws and The Hype Machine.

The beauty of The Hype Machine is that thanks to its pop-up player you don't need to do any of that naughty illegal downloading to hear your favourite new bands - as long as you have a half-decent broadband connection, you can stream them thanks to the site's nifty pop-up player. Not as good for portable listening obviously, but for use at home and in the office, it's a great way of checking out new sounds.

Being purchased by a company of Viacom's ilk could legitimise the way this slightly shady practice is run - they're not going to want to be associated with thousands and thousands of pieces of illegal content. But it could also mean that it becomes a watered-down environment, allowed to continue only if record companies are happy that the tracks appearing on The Hype Machine's playlists are the ones they allowed to see the light. One can't really blame the site founder, Anthony Volodkin, for cashing in - you'd do the same, right? But at the same time, the thought of such an innovative, exciting site becoming a neutered version of its former self is depressing for fans of both music and the online landscape.

It's the nature of the web that when a venture is closed down, co-opted or bought out that a replacement emerges ready to take its place. There was always a suspicion that The Hype Machine's party had to end, even if it never became an industry bête noire like peer-to-peer sites such as The Pirate Bay. Providing an alternative to iTunes, it focuses on new music above all else and - yes - helps drive hype. I for one hope it's able to continue in its current vein for at least a little while longer.

[via No Rock And Roll Fun]

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