Side of illegal stream-ripping websites like YouTube-MP3, the extensive digital library of legal music downloads Free Music Archive expects to shut down on December 1, according to their blog post.

With more than 100,000 .MP3 songs catalog, the platform had to shut down on November 16, but was pushed to December. Cheyenne Hohman, who’s been the director of the Free Music Archive since 2014, said in November in their ‘goodbye post’ that “The future of the archive is uncertain, but we have done everything we can to ensure that our files will not disappear from the web forever”.

“This project has changed lives for the better; it has forged entire music careers from simple online posts; it has helped facilitate a new way of approaching music licensing and audio sharing in the digital age,” Hohman wrote. “Having been the captain of this rickety ship for years, I share some grief and anger about the huge loss this shuttering represents to musicians, filmmakers, educators, podcasters, radio DJs, video game designers, the Commons, and to the online community at large.” She explains now :