Music used to be simple. You heard a track on the radio, you purchased the record, you made tapes. Nice.
Then came the Internet, and that all changed. Peer-to-peer file sharing created the need for free music. Although file sharing still continues to exist, there is now a significant market for legal streaming services. Music lovers are streaming free music from a variety of sources like Spotify etc.
When Last FM arrived on the scene in 2002 they used a music recommender system called “Audioscrobbler”. It was slightly different with its streaming model in that it recommends music, videos and concerts based on what you listen to. They do this by telling you what other music people are listening to based on the choice of artist you have made. In March 2009 subscription services was introduced to some countries.
But what if it was the people instead of a computer system recommending music, add in the twist of being paid for those recommendations, then sharing music and more importantly making money, may have found a new model within the music industry.
Start-up mflow may have just come up with such a model. They understand that a lot of music that comes into our lives comes from recommendations and therefore could be used a source for music searchers everywhere. The big question is the catalog, without a choice users could find this model a turn off, and therefore the community could fall apart. It’s a good idea, but whether it can work is a bigger question.
Looking to launch in April 2010 mflow whose tag line is ‘music is better shared’, quote some of the following on their site :
We don’t want be told what we ‘might like’ by a software program.
We don’t want to stare at an empty search bar… “a whole world of music at my fingertips, and I can’t think of anything to look for…”
We don’t want to have to subscribe to anything.
We don’t want adverts.
We just want a way for our mates to send us music they think rocks.
Find out more about mflow at : http://www.mflow.com/
Updated 12/03/10, mflow were interviewed on Technology Unplugged Sky News, watch it now :
Vy.ber ~ Virtually Cyber 