(CelebrityAccess) — The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that the Dotmusic Limited Foundation will be awarded the rights to the .Music domain name extension.
Domain name extensions, known as top level domains in the technical world, are part of domain name which allows numeric internet addresses to be translated into names that are more friendly for humans. More commonly known TLDs include extensions such as .com, .net and .gov.
The .music extension is part of an expanded category of TLDs that include descriptive references such as .blog, .stream, and .attorney.
Dotmusic founder Constantine Roussos tweeted on Friday that the organization has been selected as the successful bidder for the TLD after more than a decade of contention, beating out rivals such as Google.
According to Dotmusic, the new domain will be available for use only by legitimate members of the global music community and its use will be “governed and controlled by the global music community.”
Dotmusic’s scheme for overseeing the TLD includes the establishment of a multi-stakeholder .MUSIC policy advisory board, which includes representatives from “artists/bands, major labels, independent labels, publishers, songwriters, performance rights organizations, music collection societies, music unions, music managers, music agents, music promoters, government ministries of culture, music/arts councils, music export offices, music associations, music radio and many other constituent types.”
Registrants will be validated through a mandatory two-step phone and email authentication process and will seek to prevent cybersquatting, a practice of registering domain names for a well-known company or brand with the hope of reselling the domain to them for a profit.
The expected launch for the .Music TLD is 2020.
