Riffage.com shut down last week after the year and a half old company failed to acquire additional funding or find an acquisition partner. 

Riffage specialized in aiding unsigned bands by offering Internet users the ability to purchase downloads and merchandise for these artists. 

Riffage planed to be a full service promotion vehicle for bands. Aside from their web site services the company purchased 1500 records from the Universal Music Group last summer. This was in addition to the company�s acquisition of the San Francisco music venue, the Great American Music Hall last May. The idea was to webcast performances at the hall and for the record label to give the most popular artists recording contracts with the label. 

Reuters has reported that Riffage has been in negotiations with House of Blues for the sale of their web site operation. The record label and music hall as expected to be sold off separately. 

Riffage joins the ranks of other failed music dot-com companies like Scour, Solutions Media, Atomic Pop and iCast. 

Dot-com�s aren�t the only ones feeling the financial crunch. Also getting the axe is the legendary British weekly music magazine, Melody Maker. The 75-year-old magazine will stop publication at the close of the year when it will be merged with their more successful rival magazine the New Music Express.