Music Tech

Will 2013 Be A Mega Year For Kim Dotcom?

MegaKim Dotcom and the takedown of Megaupload was one of the major music industry stories of 2012. Now Dotcom is saying that he's going to have a Mega 2013 and he's off to an aggressive start. Later this month Mega, the descendent of Megaupload, will hold its launch party and a new chapter will begin for Kim Dotcom.

With his extradition trail delayed till August 2013, Kim Dotcom is greeting 2013 by going on the offensive against the U.S. government while simultaneously planning a launch party for the new Mega.

One year ago Megaupload was shut down so Dotcom is planning the party for January 20th, the anniversary of the police raid.

Early in December Dotcom teased details of Mega. However he had previously shared key aspects of what makes Mega different from Megaupload for an article in Wired:

"What Mega and Megaupload do have in common is that they are both one-click, subscriber-based cloud platforms that allow customers to upload, store, access, and share large files…the difference is that now those files will first be one-click-encrypted right in a client’s browser, using the so-called Advanced Encryption Standard algorithm. The user is then provided with a second unique key for that file’s decryption…"

"And because the decryption key is not stored with Mega, the company would have no means to view the uploaded file on its server. It would…be impossible for Mega to know, or be responsible for, its users’ uploaded content — a state of affairs engineered to create an ironclad 'safe harbor' from liability for Mega, and added peace of mind for the user."

It will be interesting to see how this approach plays out and we'll start to see soon enough.

One service Dotcom hasn't been promoting lately is the Megabox music network that was teased in September. Megabox has potential for marketing and ecommerce with some caveats.

Maybe Dotcom is waiting to see how the launch of Mega goes before launching a service that will likely draw on celebrity support. Mega's launch will set the tone for Kim Dotcom's 2013.

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Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (Twitter/App.net) blogs about music crowdfunding at Crowdfunding For Musicians (@CrowdfundingM). To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.

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