DotMusic, the organization responsible for the new global top-level domain (gTLD) .music, has once again delayed the launch date of its project. This time, the planned general availability date has been pushed back by more than three months—from June 25 to October 8. The reason for this delay is the need to recruit key partners from the music industry.
Community organization phase
Currently, .music is in its community organization phase, during which musicians and industry entities can claim their matching .music domains after completing a rigorous identity verification process. DotMusic is offering up to one million free domains through participating partner organizations.
To ensure the security and identity verification of registrants, DotMusic has announced a partnership with Shufti Pro. Identity verification is a crucial element of the process, ensuring that .music domains are used by actual members of the music community.
Promotion for one million free domains
DotMusic has also launched a promotion, giving away up to one million first-year domains. This offer is aimed at music community member organizations, such as record labels. The promotion lasts until May 24 or until the pool of one million domains is exhausted, whichever comes first.
Although the domains are advertised as free, the registration process is quite complex and requires multi-layered verification. Each domain must match the name of a music artist or organization and is only available to entities connected to the music industry. The domains will become active only after the registrants verify their identities through DotMusic’s sister company, ID.music, which costs $1.99 per domain during the promotion.
Despite the complex registration process, DotMusic’s offer is attractive compared to the usual costs of defensive registrations during sunrise periods. The previous sunrise period ended with domains being registered by such giants as Apple and Amazon.
Summary
The delays in launching .music highlight the challenges of introducing a new gTLD, especially in a niche industry like music. However, through partnerships and promotions, DotMusic is striving to provide the widest possible access to its gTLD while maintaining high standards of verification and security. The new date for the general availability launch of .music is October 8, and we look forward to seeing how this project develops.
