FPT Telecom closes music streaming site

Specifically, when users visit the site, they are going to see the message: “in order to change the operation model and prepare for new directions in the future, nhacso.net is has stopped providing music streaming services.”

The message also contains links to other FPT Telecom products, namely Mix166, Startalk, FPT Play, and a link to buy FPT Play Box.

Mix166 is another music streaming service, also featuring Vietnamese and US/UK songs. As of October 4, Mix166’s website remained incomplete. The links to anything other than the music tracks do not work. Startalk is a news site and FPT Play is a video streaming site where one can view Vietnamese, Korean, and Chinese TV shows. FPT Play Box is an Android TV box.

Newspaper ICTnews cited a source as saying that some of the personnel had moved from nhacSO.net to the Mix166 project. The remaining personnel will be transferred to work on other FPT Telecom projects.

nhacSO.net, launched in 2005, was one of the three most popular music streaming websites in Vietnam, besides Zing Mp3, managed by VNG Corporation, and Nhaccuatui, managed by NCT Corporation, both of which remain operational.

nhacSO.net allowed users to search, listen, like, and share specific songs, listen to playlists according to mood and theme, post comments on songs/albums for other users to read, as well as create and share on social media their own playlists. Users could also search information about artists and songs. The library consisted of Vietnamese, US-UK, and Kpop songs.

nhacSO.net worked with various singers, musicians, and publishers in Vietnam. Before 2010, it held the no. 1 position among music streaming sites in terms of number of users, but afterwards was overtaken by Zing Mp3 and Nhaccuatui. 

The site went through two big transformations in looks and features in 2011 and 2014. In 2013 it almost closed before being transferred from FPT Online to FPT Telecom. In 2015, the mobile app nhacSO was launched.

FPT Telecom announced the closure at the end of August. In an interview with ICTnews, a manager of the company said the reason was that users are “moving towards other models, which are unlike the one that nhacSO.net provides,” but did not elaborate on what the other models are.

Zing Mp3 and Nhaccuatui are still operating with this model, just like a number of other music streaming sites in the Republic of Korea and Japan.