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Kim Dotcom parts ways with the music service that he helped create
If you're famous for being the most hated man in music, it might be hard to convince musicians that you're on their side. That's the problem facing Baboom, the music streaming service started by Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom. Now, however, the company has parted ways with its infamous creator in the hope of improving relationships with the musicians it needs to recruit. On the surface, the parting is amicable and, after selling his 45 percent ownership stake, Dotcom confessed that his presence was holding the site back, much in the same way that the Internet Party was tainted by association. There's no word on if his self-penned album will remain on Baboom when it fully launches in 2015, so best download it while you've got the chance.
Kim Dotcom previews new music streaming site with his own europop album
Kim Dotcom has done it again. Two years after he rented a bunch of musicians (including Will.i.am) to promote his doomed Megaupload service, he's turned to a group of presumably more affordable artists to support his next project, Baboom. The music streaming site launched in preview mode today, with a design that looks like a cross between Rdio and the new MySpace, and with just a single album in its library: a sort of europop medley made by Dotcom himself with contributions from Printz Board (one of Will.i.am's buddies), Mona Dotcom (Kim's wife) and some others we've never heard of. Although this teaser album is free, Baboom will ultimately let you pay to download music in addition to streaming it, and the site appears to offer a degree of support for high-definition audio too (including FLAC and MP3 320Kbps). The big selling point, however, will be a reward scheme that gives you free music in exchange for installing an advertising plugin into your browser -- but that's likely still a few months off. In the meantime, Dotcom's talent for self-publicity (if not singing) seems to be working: Baboom is reporting 80,000 plays in its first hour online. [Image credit: Thierry Ehrmann, Flickr]
Kim Dotcom's Baboom service will hijack web ads to give you free music
Kim Dotcom built his reputation on free services -- much to the chagrin of some people -- and he's revisiting that turf with his upcoming music offering, Baboom. As he explains in an interview with Wired UK, the service will be an "iTunes-Spotify hybrid" that both sells music and offers it for free through ad deals. However, its approach to ad-supported tunes is bound to raise eyebrows -- users will install a browser plugin that replaces web ads with those from Baboom, paying surfers with cash that they can spend on songs. Typical users could earn 10 free albums a year through their browsing habits, Dotcom claims. The tech luminary will demonstrate the concept by soft-launching Baboom with his own music in January, following up with full service a few months later. The business model is intriguing, although it may face stiff resistance; we can't imagine that rival advertisers and website owners will enjoy losing revenue. [Image credit: Thierry Ehrmann, Flickr]
