.music

Overview

.music is a community-based generic top-level domain (gTLD) intended for the global music community. Launched from initiatives that began in 2005, the string is aimed at music dissemination, promotion, education and protection of music-related intellectual property. Several competing applicants sought rights to operate .music during the 2012 new gTLD round.

History

• Early initiative: The dotMusic initiative was started by Constantine Roussos in 2005 to gather industry support for a music-specific gTLD.
• Contention: .music was one of the most highly contested strings in the 2012 new gTLD round, with eight applicants including DotMusic, Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.), Amazon, Donuts, Far Further, Top Level Domain Holdings (TLDH), Radix and Famous Four Media.
• Community coalition & approval: On April 17, 2019, a global music community coalition (including organizations such as IFPI, CISAC, IFM, RIAA, NMPA, The Recording Academy, A2IM, WIN and NAMM) announced that the community-based application had been approved by ICANN.
• Registry agreement: The .music registry agreement with ICANN was signed on May 4, 2021.
• Operator and backend: As of 2022 the registry operator is DotMusic Limited and CentralNic was selected as the backend provider in DotMusic's proposal.

Usage and Audience

• Target audience:
  • Musicians, bands and performing artists
  • Music industry organizations, labels, publishers and rights groups
  • Music educators, promoters and non-profit music organizations
  • Services for music distribution, discovery and anti-piracy efforts
• Intended purposes highlighted by applicants and supporters:
  • Music education and promotion
  • Fighting online music piracy and protecting intellectual property
  • Providing a trusted, verified namespace for music entities
  • Channeling registry revenue to select non-profit music organizations (as proposed by community applicants)

Registration Rules

• Community model: Community-priority applications (DotMusic and Far Further among others) proposed restricted registration models that require registrants to be accredited Community Member Organizations (CMOs) or otherwise affiliated with qualifying music organizations.
• Eligibility and safeguards: Some applicants proposed verified and authenticated registrations to create a trusted domain identity similar to licensed namespaces. Far Further and DotMusic proposed qualification via association with supporting organizations or membership in a Global Music Community.
• ICANN policy constraints:
  • ICANN's Registry Agreement and Specification 11 require non-discriminatory access for registrars and limit exclusive-access registry models for generic terms.
  • ICANN resolutions in 2014 mandated enhanced safeguards and prohibited operating new gTLDs as exclusive-access registries when based on a generic sector term.

SEO and Brand Impact

• Brand positioning: Community-backed proposals emphasized .music as a trustworthy, verified namespace for music professionals and organizations—positioning it as a specialized, identity-affirming alternative to generic gTLDs.
• Industry credibility: Endorsement and backing from major music organizations (IFPI, RIAA, recording academies and trade groups) contribute to sector credibility and brand recognition for the TLD.
• Competition and access concerns: Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) early warnings and community objections during the application process reflected concerns about exclusive control or competitive impacts if a commercial applicant sought closed access to the generic string.

Notable Cases or Examples

• Applicants: DotMusic (community application), Far Further (.music LLC, community application), Google, Amazon, Donuts, Top Level Domain Holdings (TLDH), Radix and Famous Four Media.
• Community approval announcement: Global music coalition announced ICANN approval of the community-backed .music application on April 17, 2019.
• Registry agreement signed: May 4, 2021.
• Objections and disputes:
  • DotMusic filed Legal Rights Objections against other applicants based on registered trademarks for ".music" and "dotmusic".
  • Community objections were filed by the American Association of Independent Music (AAIM), DotMusic and other organizations against multiple applicants over concerns about open registries, inadequate safeguards and exclusive-access policies.
  • GAC Early Warnings were issued for Amazon (concerns about exclusive access and competition) and Radix (flagged in relation to included correspondence with a U.S. FBI email address).
• Community Priority Evaluation outcome: Far Further received 3 of 16 points in its Community Priority Evaluation (October 2014) and did not obtain priority rights under the community evaluation process.

% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       MUSIC

organisation: DotMusic Limited
address:      19 Mesolongiou Street
address:      Limassol 3032
address:      Cyprus

contact:      administrative
name:         Constantinos Roussos
organisation: DotMusic Limited
address:      19 Mesolongiou Street
address:      Limassol 3032
address:      Cyprus
phone:        +1 310 985 8661
fax-no:       +357 25363193
e-mail:       costa@music.us

contact:      technical
name:         Francisco Obispo (CTO)
organisation: Tucows.com, Co.
address:      96 Mowat Avenue
address:      Toronto Ontario M6K3M1
address:      Canada
phone:        +1 (416) 535-0123
e-mail:       fobispo@tucows.com

nserver:      NS01.TRS-DNS.COM 2620:57:4001:0:0:0:0:1 64.96.1.1
nserver:      NS01.TRS-DNS.INFO 185.159.198.3 2620:10a:80ab:0:0:0:0:3
nserver:      NS01.TRS-DNS.NET 2620:57:4002:0:0:0:0:1 64.96.2.1
nserver:      NS01.TRS-DNS.ORG 185.159.197.3 2620:10a:80aa:0:0:0:0:3
ds-rdata:     14632 13 2 68f411322e670c84337b2182422af6e8f95c367c24e79cd4326b2276f52f4603

whois:        whois.nic.music

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: https://nic.music/

created:      2021-10-14
changed:      2025-05-15
source:       IANA