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Digital
Beyond Oblivion close to launching music service
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 22 August 2011
Digital music start up Beyond Oblivion says it is close to having its record label deals in place, and that it plans to launch its service to the public later this year under the brand name Boinc. It has also revealed that it won’t sell the service directly to consumers, rather it will licence the product to smartphone and PC makers who will in turn bundle it in with their existing fees, thus making it appear free to the end user. The company says two such B2B deals are close to completion.
But what is the service itself? We knew Beyond Oblivion was operating in the digital locker space, but that it wasn’t quite as simple as the basic online storage facilities for MP3s now offered by Amazon and Google. And that’s right. According to the Financial Times, Boinc will be similar to the iMatch service Apple plan to launch, in the US, this autumn, whereby a bit of software scans your own MP3 folders, notes any tracks in there (oblivious of source), and then lets you stream those tracks from your Boinc device at any time without paying a fee or listening to ads.
Also according to the FT, Beyond Oblivion will charge a one-off licence fee to the device maker, which will in turn be bundled into the cost of the device, and a large portion of that money will be passed back to rights owners. In theory labels and publishers will get a royalty every time one of their tracks is played, which means that Boinc’s financials are based on the theory that most users will not use the service at full capacity for the whole life of the device, otherwise the company could make a loss.
Boinc is expected to launch in the UK and US first.
