In addition to being the first Dotcom collection distributed commercially, the album was also notable for soft-launching Baboom. The fledging music service was to provide the platform for the entrepreneur’s assault on the major label-controlled recording business.

From the beginning Baboom’s stated aim was to disrupt the music industry by closing the gap between artists and fans, rewarding the former with most of the profits. The latter would be put in a win-win situation via free ad-supported music streaming.

The one constant that remained throughout was Kim Dotcom himself, a person with whom the service was inextricably linked, both financially and from branding and marketing perspectives. Today, however, that has all come to an end.

According to a new Particulars of Shareholding document filed this morning, Coatesville Trustee Services Limited – Dotcom’s family trust – has sold all of its shares in Baboom.

Before the sale Michael Sorensen’s Vig Limited, which also holds 13044 shares (9.97%) in Mega.co.nz, held 45% of Baboom’s shares. Company documents reveal that Vig now owns 90% after Dotcom’s family trust shares were transferred to the company.

As can be seen above, the remaining 10% is held by Xavier Buck of Dicé Invest. In November 2013, Buck, who is also a director at Domaintools, said he would be heading up MEGA Europe.

Perhaps the most curious element of Dotcom’s exit from the business is the language being used by Baboom chief executive Grant Edmundson. While he wishes the Baboom founder well, a single sentence distances Dotcom from the company in every possible way.

“The transaction means Dotcom no longer has any equity or role in Baboom, nor any relationship with the company,” Edmundson said.

“Kim is moving on to focus on other projects and both camps wish each other well with future plans.”

TorrentFreak spoke with Edmundson and asked if Dotcom’s exit from the company had been his choice alone, Baboom’s, or by mutual agreement. He told us that he would not comment on matters between shareholders. However, when questioned on whether Baboom’s brand would be affected by the departure of its founder, Edmundson was more forthcoming.

“In terms of the impact on Baboom, my view is that the Baboom service will now be able to be judged on its own merits rather than being assessed on the brand equity (or otherwise) of its shareholder base,” the Baboom CEO said.

Kim Dotcom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Baboom is currently trying to raise US$3.98m (NZ$5.05m) and a listing on the Australian Securities Exchange. The company sought to raise the funds from investors in return for 11.5% of its shares with the offer closing in July, but that deadline was amended to make it open-ended.

Baboom is scheduled to debut in the fourth quarter of 2014, although no firm launch date has been provided by the company.

Update: Kim Dotcom has taken to Twitter:

Good bye @Baboom. I was holding u back. The music industry hates me. You'll do better without me. Good luck my love. http://t.co/eByCsUizmR

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) October 2, 2014

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Baboom’s 41-page prospectus invites investors to take a share in a company aiming to provide a special service to both artists and users. While allowing the former to pick up an industry-beating 90% of the spoils, the latter will have the opportunity to listen to music for free, a combination that Baboom hopes will prove a tempting mix to potential investors.

The company is issuing 11,250,000 shares at AUS $0.40 each, with the aim of securing “sophisticated or professional investors” able to pump in a minimum of $20,000 each.

The target is AUS $4.5 million and according to Ben Yeo, senior adviser at Melbourne-based Novus Capital, the company is well on the way. Speaking with TorrentFreak, Yeo says there has been a large amount of interest from not only within Australia and New Zealand, but also from Europe and Asia.

“While the offer has only been marketed to a select number of sophisticated investors, the offer is tracking incredibly well and we have extended the offering for an additional week so as [Baboom CEO] Grant Edmundson can present to a number of potential cornerstone investors in Australia who have requested an in-person meeting with the Baboom Ltd CEO,” Yeo explains.

The prospectus describes Baboom as a “cloud streaming and download service”, with users able to store their music library for retrieval anywhere in the world on both desktop and mobile devices. It’s estimated that users will get between 10 and 15 albums for free each year in the ad-supported model while their “locker” will max out at 50 gigabytes.

It’s probably no coincidence that this limit is the same as that offered by Dotcom’s Mega.co.nz, with the prospectus citing links between Baboom and Mega as a “competitive advantage”. Not everything will be centralized, however. Baboom says it will also offer “unique user ‘peer2peer’ content streaming” features, with a “jukebox” listed as an example use.

As previously reported, Baboom will also offer industry-leading audio quality via its FLAC streaming service and will integrate a worldwide ticketing and merchandising solution.

Also of interest to investors is Baboom’s target markets. The company says it will focus on under-serviced regions with high growth potential to include South East Asia, Australasia, Southern and East Africa and Europe.

Like Spotify before it, one of Baboom’s key aims is target markets with piracy problems. The company says it will deploy “robust marketing” in order to provide a legitimate music streaming and downloading platform in these regions.

But while Spotify has achieved its success with the full support of the major labels, it’s impossible to see a situation in which Warner, Universal and Sony warm to the idea of dealing with a company affiliated with Kim Dotcom. That reality is certainly not lost on the management of Baboom, who detail the company’s market strategy as focusing on “independent labels, producer archives and unpublished material.”

And according to Novus Capital’s Ben Yeo, things couldn’t be going any better on that front.

“What Grant and I have been overwhelmed with is the level of support we have been receiving from the global independent music industry who have thrown their support behind Baboom and are eager to show their support by uploading content onto the platform,” Yeo told TF.

On any platform of this type, content is definitely king, so potential investors will be encouraged that Baboom is receiving good support as it prepares for takeoff. The prospectus envisions a fourth quarter release for the service, but according to Yeo there is much work to be done.

“By the time the offer closes I envisage the company to be in a strong position to develop its backend systems, mobile platform and content acquisition prior to the platform’s hard launch either late December 2014 or January 2015,” Yeo concludes.

The early signs suggest that at least in its early days Baboom is unlikely to prompt a mass migration away from services such as Spotify. However, its unique way of remunerating artists could prove very tempting, particularly when played out against a backdrop of traditional middle-men struggling to remain both profitable and relevant in a changing market.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The latter had its ‘soft launch’ in January featuring only one album, that of Kim Dotcom himself. A few months have passed since and Baboom is now gearing up for a full release.

Dotcom has been clear about his goal for the music service ever since it was first teased in 2011. By providing free music and compensating artists through advertising revenue, Dotcom believes he can decrease music piracy while giving artists proper compensation for their work.

But is that really doable? This week two of Baboom’s top executives spoke out on Baboom’s mission and some of the unrivaled features through which it hopes to disrupt the music industry.

Chief Technology Officer Marco Oliveira stresses that closing the gap between artists and fans is one of the main goals. One way to do this is by providing the best quality music possible, through lossless streaming of FLAC music files.

“Baboom is the first music streaming platform to support FLAC streaming, which delivers lossless audio. What this means, is that fans get to listen to music exactly how the artist intended. No degraded audio experience, you get an exact replica of what the artist recorded,” Oliveira says.

Streaming FLAC files will require a decent Internet connection, as a full music album can easily take up more than half a gigabyte. In addition to lossless streams, users will also be able to download tracks in FLAC format to listen to offline.

But the music quality is only part of the offer. For artists, Baboom wants to make it as simple as possible to share their work with the public and make a decent living while doing so. No strings attached.

“Artists should be in charge of their careers, instead of being locked in unfair agreements. Neither artists or fans care for this. All they care about is the music, and that’s what should matter,” Oliveira.

This vision is shared by Mikee Tucker, Baboom’s Head of Content and Platform, who has worked with independent artists for over a decade.

Tucker believes that Baboom can give artists full control over their music, and earn more than they would do through any of the major labels.

“For me there are two driving factors behind Baboom’s vision. Firstly, the spirit of true independence and artist freedom which inspires our vision to empower the artist and give control back to the creator. Secondly, the need for a solution to tackle declining revenues and outdated business models which inspires our vision innovate and disrupt,” Tucker says.

It may sound too good to be true, but Baboom believes it can generate enough revenue through its advertisement tool. This application works like an ad blocker, but instead of blocking ads it replaces a small percentage with Baboom’s own ads. Those who prefer not to install the app have the option to buy the music instead.

Most of the revenue will then flow directly to the artists with Baboom keeping a small share, 10 percent. This fraction pales in comparison to the amounts held back by the major labels.

While this may work in theory, in the end Baboom’s success will greatly depend on the content. Dotcom previously said that there are several “top artists” lined up for the launch, but who they are remains a mystery for now.

It’s no secret that Dotcom has several prominent connections in the music industry and it will be interesting to see which artists join him. In any case, there will definitely be plenty of attention for Baboom’s launch later this year.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

But for this larger-than-life German with a colorful past worthy of a Hollywood movie (he’d love one of those of course), backing down was never an option. Once released from prison he picked up where he left off, building a brand new lawyer-pleasing cloud hosting company and becoming an outspoken privacy advocate and Internet surveillance critic.

Rewind more than two years ago, before that frankly stunning January day in 2012, Dotcom was working on a project intended to shake up the music industry. His Megakey product was a tool designed to block ads as users browse the web, replacing them with ones from Dotcom’s own ad network. This would generate revenue to help pay for ‘free’ music, a controversial technique which led to Dotcom stating that it would only activate itself on sites in the Alexa 100 – a take from the rich and give to the poor mechanic.

It was envisioned that Megakey would dovetail with another service, Megabox, but that particular naming convention will no longer see the light of day. In 2013 Dotcom confirmed to TorrentFreak that his new music offering would be called Baboom.

Today, the eve of Dotcom’s 40th birthday and the one-year anniversary of the launch of Mega.co.nz, will also see the release of Dotcom’s brand new album, Good Times. Various tracks have already been heard around the web, from the rowdy ‘Party Amplifier’ to the Dotcom alter-ego-featuring Live My Life. With production genius Printz Board, erm, on board, the sound quality is as good as you’d expect.

Good Times is being promoted online by Dotcom himself and on radio, but it is also enjoying some traditional offline marketing, with Dotcom’s face currently plastered over the back of around 100 buses.

The really unique aspect of the album, however, is its integration into the launch today of Baboom. Billed as a ‘soft launch’ of the yet-to-debut full service, Dotcom’s album is the centerpiece and sole musical attraction.

At the moment the Baboom site is a fairly straightforward affair. As an early preview most features are disabled although fans can read all about Kim, look at his pictures and videos and, of course, listen to his music. All of the tracks from the album are available to download for free in three formats – MP3, FLAC and .WAV. There’s also some samples to download for use in a remix competition.

Additionally, those who wish to pay for the album can do so, but no money changes hands on the Baboom site. All sales are directed to iTunes, Amazon and Bandcamp. Dotcom’s Twitter feed is embedded into his artist page but there are currently no other signs of ‘social’ elements woven into the music experience. Music discovery processes will also have to wait.

Of course there are many unanswered questions over where the service goes from here. Most iTunes or Spotify-like streaming services have the backing of the major labels which together provide tens of millions of licensed tracks. At this stage, considering Dotcom’s somewhat stormy relationship with U.S.-based rightsholders, it seems unlikely that Baboom will be able to compete on volume. While a focused and personal artist-to-fan experience could be on the cards, Dotcom only does big….so watch this space.

The full Baboom service is currently penciled in for a late-2014 launch.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

At the time the project was called Megabox and the similarly named .com domain was seized by the U.S. Government. However, despite all the legal troubles, Dotcom continued development on the music platform.

It’s currently being prepared for a public launch, albeit under a different brand. Dotcom had decided initially decided to keep the new name a secret for a while, but after he resigned from Mega earlier this week there were several signs suggesting that it could be “Baboom.”

TorrentFreak presented the Internet entrepeneur with these findings, and Dotcom confirmed that the new service will indeed launch at Baboom.com.

Dotcom has already secured several millions in funding for the project and there are currently 22 developers working on it. Unlike Mega, Baboom will be operated by a company owned by the Internet entrepreneur himself.

With Baboom, Dotcom strongly believes that he can revolutionize the music industry and give artists full control over their music again.

“I am really excited about Baboom. I can’t wait for artists to see what i have created for them. Their entire career can be managed on Baboom. Artists never had more freedom, transparency and control,” he tells TorrentFreak.

The teaser below shows what Baboom will look like, although not all design elements are final yet. The completed project will be much more advanced than how the Megabox idea initially started, and Dotcom doesn’t plan to release it before it’s perfect.

Dotcom previously said that there are several “top artists” lined up for the launch, but those featured in the teaser above are just internal design placeholders, for now.

When it’s released Baboom will give the public access to free music, while compensating artists through advertising revenue. With this “free music” business model Dotcom believes he can decrease music piracy while giving artists proper compensation for their work.

In addition, Baboom is expected to have a paid version where music fans can pay for music and not be bothered by ads.

It is no secret that Dotcom has several prominent connections in the music industry and it will be interesting to see which artists join the project. In any case, there will definitely be plenty of attention for Baboom’s launch.

Whether Baboom will be able to challenge the mighty influence of the major labels will become clear in a few months’ time.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.