Murfie ceased operations

  • 21 November 2019
  • 81 replies
  • 6377 views

Hello.  The Murfie website says they have ceased operations.  As of today, my collection is still streaming but I cannot reach anyone there.  I have about 600 discs uploaded as FLAC files there and am very concerned to be able to retrieve those in tact.

Anyone else use Murfie or any suggestions?

Thank you,

Bigdog39


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81 replies

Abandon.  I also just received this message, a ray of hope I guess for those who own physical media in possession of Murfie.  

Thank you,

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I hope so, I look like crazy in FLAC these tracks, which I was about to buy in Murfie, if someone sells them please contact me:
Salt - Occasions
The Innocence Mission - Let's Talk About Something Else

I was a legacy member for several years. When earlier this year my membership failed to renew, I contacted customer support in vain. I sent several emails and even made phone calls. No one ever replied to the emails (a first) and, when calling during normal business hours, I only received an automated voice response, never connecting with a live person (also a first). I then contacted the president of the company. He made no replies either. 

Concerned and frustrated, I downloaded every album I had purchased in Flac, which took a while, and then posted a negative comment on the Murfie Facebook page. At last I connected with a representative who saw the post. I called him and determined during that conversation, and sensing trouble with the company, to have my collection shipped back to me. They fulfilled my request and I obtained my physical collection about a month later. He even said during our talk he was in the middle of dozens of return requests, which I knew was the kiss of death. 

I had no idea there were so many Murfie supporters here. Otherwise I would have issued a warning. I think all of you will receive your collections in time, but I am very sorry for your hassles. I thought it was a great service until the end.  

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My CDs still play off the app on my phone and to a Bluetooth speaker. Is there a way to get them from the app to another Cloud-based service or do I need the physical CDs? 
 

Thx in advance and I feel your pain. I’m in the “700 Club” with another 25 just shipped. 

CSP2019:

Curious how you downloaded every album you had purchased in FLAC?  Was this done via Murfie streaming?

 

Thank you

CSP2019:

Curious how you downloaded every album you had purchased in FLAC?  Was this done via Murfie streaming?

 

Thank you

It was a feature on the website. I simply made a FLAC download request for each album I purchased and streamed up to that point. After a few minutes, the download would become available. I went through this tedious exercise for concern of what did end up happening: a shut down. 

FWIW, I received the following email on the 17th. I also had a balance of around $117 in my account from past sales. I requested a check on the 18th for this amount. 

So, I am pretty surprised to see this happen. I will let you know if I get my check. Here is the text of the email:

 

Hi XXXXX,
 

This past April, Murfie rolled out a new pricing structure designed to better align and scale with our cloud storage costs. As a result, we now require an active annual membership in order to continue using the Murfie platform.

In order to continue delivering low-latency, high-fidelity streaming to our users around the world, we periodically review our accounts, and as a result, noticed that you haven't logged into your account for some time. We're writing to find out what you'd like to do with your music stored on Murfie.

As a Thank You for your early support of Murfie, and to maintain access to your music, we're pleased to offer you $20.00 off an annual Gold-level subscription, and give you 3 additional months free. To redeem this offer, simply login to your Murfie account, confirm that your payment information is up-to-date and get in touch with an account representative to claim this special offer.

Alternatively, you can elect to have your collection returned to you for the price of shipping. Bulk rates start at $10.00 + 0.39 per disc. To have your collection shipped back to you, or to inquire about international rates, click here. Please specify your shipping zip code so we can update your shipping estimate accordingly. One of our account services team members will then reach out and help you get started. 

Finally, if you'd like to dispense with your collection and permanently close your Murfie account, click here. Closed accounts will lose access to all of their content on the Murfie platform, and any physical media will be disposed of.

For the next 30 days, you'll continue to enjoy unlimited lossless streaming, downloads, and access to our Murfie Marketplace. If you don't elect to become a paying member within 30 days of this notice, or indicate you'd like your collection returned, we'll consider your account closed and make arrangements to dispose of your collection. 

If you have any questions in the meantime, please send us an email and we'll be happy to help!

Cheers, 

The Murfie Team

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CSP2019:

Curious how you downloaded every album you had purchased in FLAC?  Was this done via Murfie streaming?

 

Thank you

Once you have bought an album from an artist, you can do only one thing, put it in your Murfie store and sell it, or Download it in Any format (WAV, m4a, mp3) but once downloaded in those formats you no longer have the right to sell it through Murfie.com, I downloaded everything purchased on Murfie.com, only one album did not download it and I put it for sale and just at the time I wanted to download it was that day Wednesday, November 20, and when I gave it a download button, I got the message: "There was an error with your download" that screwed and only three days ago I bought an album, it is more when I bought an album and gave me songs that were not in the required album, I had him return my money and do not download the album and press the cancel button, but they did not return my money to my account, but they gave me the amount to my credit Murfie wallet, I think that several clients had cash in the Murfie wallet, I have more than 5,000 albums , it is very rare that this company Murfie He has not even given a notice in advance to be able to download his purchase even in digital form, to obtain my purchase in physical CD, because he was from Peru I had to pay $ 16 for the shipment and add more for each CD, here I paste the following message who sent me as well as the download image of a purchase made at murfie.com:

"The charge for one CD shipped to Peru is $ 16. Were you planning on buying more than one? If so, it would be cheaper to buy them all at once. It would then be $ 3 for each additional disc. Let me know what you think! Thank you!

Sincerely,

Matt "

 

The following article posted this morning: https://madison.com/news/local/when-the-music-stops-madison-based-murfie-unexpectedly-ceases-operations/article_71cba39e-46b2-5657-8e5c-04cae259d8cc.html

Userlevel 2

This was my last transmission with them in June:

Thank you for your recent Murfie purchase and delivery request. I
wanted to contact you because I notice that the shipping address you
have supplied is outside of the US which changes the cost to ship your
Items. The $3.99 shipping cost that we advertise is for domestic
shipping to an address within the mainland USA. For international
shipping we request that customers contact us for a shipping quote.
Based on the shipping address you have supplied, the calculated cost
to ship your items will be $16 per CD. Please contact me at your
earliest convenience to confirm if you would still like us to the ship
your Items to the address associated with your account or
alternatively you could supply a US mainland address or cancel the
delivery. Please let me know how you wish to proceed.

I decided not to pay the ransom they were requesting for the few CDs I had purchased. I’m glad that I decided to hang onto my CD collection and not ship to them a few years ago. I hope those that trusted them with their music can get it back!

My collection is no longer available to stream.
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If and when we get our CDs back can anyone recommend a Sonos compatible cloud service. Thx. 

Userlevel 7
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I’d recommend not using a cloud service for Sonos but a local music library. That could range from a Raspberry Pi to a full blown NAS device, as long as it supports SMB v1 connections.

If and when we get our CDs back can anyone recommend a Sonos compatible cloud service. Thx. 

 

Google Play Music or Apple will do it.  Google Play Music is free for 50,000 tracks (just cancel payment after the free trial), Apple requires a subscription.  

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Send contact info. 

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Send to  I cannot receive private messages here. I’m also a reporter for news radio in NYC. 

Userlevel 1
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A few years back, I had Murfie copy my collection on an NAS device (they supplied one). Unfortuantely, I didn’t have it upadated so my newer discs not available.

I’m not optimistic that our collections will be returned but if users are willing to pay, one option would be for Murfie to return collections on a NAS device. 

seems like a lower labor cost to Murfie than shipping CD’s.

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Is there anywhere else we can stay in touch and perhaps reach out to the Murfie execs?

Just rcv’d the following email:

Hello,

This email is to solicit your instructions for return of your CDs held in Murfie's secure storage facility.

 

Murfie, Inc. has terminated all business operations to include the website, streaming services, marketplace activities and downloads.  The company is insolvent (has no money) and has been dissolved. Assets remaining have been assumed by Murfie's secured creditors.

 

Murfie appreciates and values your participation as part of the Murfie community of music fans. While Murfie sought to build the company around the quality and license rights associated with owned physical music formats, customer preferences have shifted to predominantly favor purely digital music.  

 

Unfortunately Murfie's financial situation precludes any ability to reimburse customers for unused portions of subscriptions or for any Murfie credits that may have accumulated.  Murfie' secured creditors  have joined together with a few former Murfie customers to informally aid customers seeking return of their CDs.  Since Murfie's debt obligations far exceed cash on hand, any return of customer media must be funded by the customers themselves.  

 

A process to implement timely return of customer-owned CDs is now being formulated and will be in place soon. This email is to solicit customer requests for CD return.

 

To receive CDs that you stored with Murfie you must notify the company by close of business December 2 that you elect the return of your physical media. Complete the return request form linked below:
 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdWcsfu-xhcpB_Evf0xVasy4bGCGGoD9fBzO7Rx1qH_v9PhOA/viewform?usp=sf_link

 

Upon receipt of your request the CD return team will send you an invoice for payment based on the size of your collection along with information on how to make payment online.  Cost of handling is significant as it requires a manual effort to pull your CDs from the nearly 1 million CDs in Murfie's Storage.  Cost will vary greatly depending on number of discs and degree of physical dispersion of your collection (due to your buy/sell activity in the marketplace). To estimate your approximate cost use the formula: $100.00 plus $0.45 per disc. Actual cost that will be invoiced to you will vary as it is subject to the labor required to extract and assemble your discs.


Please note this is a limited time offer. Due to the company's dissolution, if you do not reply to this message by COB December 2, the team cannot put your request into the shipping queue.  Also your non-response to this message will be taken as your authorization to consider your collection as abandoned.  Abandoned discs will be recycled by the end of December when the storage facility must be vacated.

 

Murfie apologizes for the inconvenience and the short time fuse for this process.  Thank you for your patience in this difficult situation.

 

The Murfie Close-out Team

 
 
 

You received this email because our records indicate that you have, or have had, content processed or stored by Murfie, Inc.

This is extremely frustrating!  We need to pay hundreds of dollars to get our own property back?  

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This is extremely frustrating!  We need to pay hundreds of dollars to get our own property back?  

In my case, I have to pay $ 16 for the shipment and from there adding $ 3 more for each following CD, Murfie has done it on purpose, notice that they themselves say they have more than 1 million Discs and I think more, so that the profit would be more than 1 million dollars to return all CD shipping.

Murfie Users, alone we may seem powerless but perhaps we should be considering banding together for a class action.  Has anyone sought legal advice?  I have 10,000 cds there and had over $400 in my account from cd sales.  The financial impact for me is significant in the short and long term.  I’m beside myself right now so please chime in if you have any ideas.

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Murfie Users, alone we may seem powerless but perhaps we should be considering banding together for a class action.  Has anyone sought legal advice?  I have 10,000 cds there and had over $400 in my account from cd sales.  The financial impact for me is significant in the short and long term.  I’m beside myself right now so please chime in if you have any ideas.

I never sold CD in Murfie, but how was the play? The CDs you sold in Murfie, did the money go directly to your Paypal or Card Bank account? or I was going to Murfie's wallet, I bought several CDs and listened to it via streaming, I could not download some in digital format, the point is that that day you could still log in and the message of Murfie's farewell came out, I would I gave the button to download in FLAC, so that I can even have it in digital format, the ridiculous thing is that, for the shiping and the return of the CDs it costs me more than triple that I bought it.

Userlevel 7
Badge +22

A class action is always a possibility but they are expensive and the lawyers want their money up front, form the class members, when there is little possibility of recovering it from the company being sued. If Murfie is truly broke what would you gain from suing them?

The CD return operation is not being run by Murfie, they are gone as a going concern. It is being run by the folks Murfie owed money to and a few customers. If you object to them making money for the work of returning your CDs that is fine, don’t hire them but also don’t be surprised to see the CDs go to a landfill if they can’t be sold off by the bankruptcy court’s agents.

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hire a lawyer for just one scam case? , that is totally lazy, first there to gather signatures and settle the demand, it is ridiculous not to know a little bit of laws, and Murfie does lose credibility in thousands of North American companies, not to trust contracts with any streaming company, not even Apple music , tidal etc, we are hundreds affected and if he can not pay the damages, the minimum that Murfie deserve is jail, for fraud and property damage.

Userlevel 7
Badge +22

If you want to do a class action case it will be difficult (I’d say impossible) to get a judge to certify the class without a licenced legal professional as the lead.

Even if you got a judge to certify the class without a lawyer you’d not get anything in the way of jail time for the Murfie folks, that has to go through the criminal courts, not civil. You’d need to get a District Attorney or the like to press charges there.

I didn’t read the original or amended contract with Murfie so I can’t say what they promised in the main section or limited in the fine print. Reading that and picking the applicable laws and precedents is a job for a legal professional with a research staff behind them.

Civil or Criminal there are rules and hurdles that must be met.