As of 12:00 PM PST, the MP3.com website will no longer be available in its current form.

MP3.com has been bought by CNET Networks, who has announced plans to create a new MP3 serivce in the future. It will be called music.download.com, and will offer artists free file hosting and web space.

MP3.com had stagnated recently. Many of the features within the site were well thought-out: you could listen to stations catering to all types of music, download individual tracks, and learn about artists. Unfortunately, MP3.com didn’t make it easy to separate the wheat from the chaff. Any service that offers free hosting will be flooded with garbage, so a system for promoting the small percentage of good tracks is needed.

Nevertheless, it’s sad to see MP3.com disappear. It will be interesting to see what takes its place.

Check out Synthtopia’s free mp3 music page for legal electronica downloads.