Dotcom’s answer to iTunes
THE long-term plan for Kim Dotcom’s new music sharing service is to disrupt the industry, but in the short term it just looks like a way to showcase his own work.
Baboom.com launched in preview mode on Monday with the founder’s album, Good Times, used to show people what to expect when the site goes live later this year.
MegaUpload and Mega founder Dotcom’s site intends to be a hybrid of Apple’s popular iTunes and digital music service Spotify.
Dotcom wants artists to offer their music for free or as a paid download for which users are directed to iTunes or Amazon.
‘‘My idea is that artists should make their music available for free, and fans should only pay for it if they really like it,’’ explains Dotcom in a video on Baboom.
However, he still wants artists to make money so users will eventually be able to install an advertising widget in their web browser that will offer rewards that can be used to buy music from Baboom.
Dotcom’s intention is to give artists more money and remove the middlemen – the music labels. With this in mind, Baboom lets artists sell directly to fans and keep 90 per cent of sales.
He also fires a shot at the establishment and has sent a tweet telling the Recording Industry Association of America: ‘‘Hello RIAA, this will be your grave.’’
The preview has been popular with fans with reports of about 80,000 plays of Dotcom’s music in its first hour online. However, in the long term it will be competing with some popular services, such as Pandora, Spotify and Rdio.
With only one album available it is hard to gauge how successful the site will be and whether it will topple the music label heavyweights.
Like all music services, success depends on which artists sign up and that will not be known until the full service launches later this year.