Music Business

Kim Dotcom’s Baboom Offers Shares, Claims Indie Support, Seeks “Friendly Major Artists”

Baboom-logoThe ongoing saga of Kim Dotcom's attempt to launch a new music service continues with a search for funding for Baboom. A "Limited Pre-IPO" is offering shares to "Sophisticated Investors only" in an attempt to raise $4.5 million. That offer closes Friday. The plan is to launch the service and to go public on the Australian stock exchange by the end of the year. Baboom will be dependent on indie music and "friendly major artists" and, though they're claiming strong indie support, one has to wonder at the prospects of such a company that identifies its competitors as Pandora, Spotify and Beats.

Though Kim Dotcom is said to have no role in the day-to-day running of Baboom, he is so closely associated with it that a win or loss for Baboom is a win or loss for Dotcom.

Novos Capital is handling the Baboom Limited Pre-IPO offer of stocks to screened investors for which $4.5 million is sought.

In their presentation Kim Dotcom is listed as:

"Visionary and Internet Strategist (Investor)" (pg. 11)

But their Market Strategy includes a plan to:

"Leverage Kim Dotcom pioneering brand in supportive territories" (pg. 15)

Novos Capital's Ben Yeo spoke with TorrentFreak and claimed to be overwhelmed by "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."

And that's the thing, in their presentation they note the valuation of Pandora, Spotify and Beats and describe them as "Baboom's competitors."

But Baboom is unlikely to get music from the major labels though they hope to "acquire music from friendly major artists." So, though they may make some innovative moves that lessen that issue for users and though they may get a lot of indies on board, they seem to be trying to do something that seems unlikely to reach the scale of a Pandora or Spotify.

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Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch) also blogs at DanceLand. Send news about music tech startups and services, DIY music biz and music marketing to: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.

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