Let's not start the "illegal downloading is killing the music industry" debate just right now- as the big record companies and the internet service providers have enough on their plate to chew for themselves. Today, I want to share a website that I was contacted about that's set to be as big, if not bigger, than legal music streaming website, Spotify. The new arrival is called Mflow, and it's coming to a screen near you.
The service, which launched last Friday, after an initial pre-launch and invite only period, kicked off with a bang, offering some highly interesting and persuasive features. MFlow supplies you with a computer program which you can download to your laptop or desktop, from there you have a great deal of the music world at your fingertips- only with some differences from other providers, such as the Spotify service. The main emphasis of Mflow is sharing. They want you, and enable you so easily, to connect and share music and opinions on the tracks, with other users. Think of it as social networking, with audio, and lots of it.
MFlow offers full tracks, similar to Spotify and Last.fm premium (once they've been shared; 30-second previews without), along with the ability to buy tracks that you've heard and listened to from your friends, or from a direct search. Only the clincher- the most music you share, and the more music that people you know buy, the better it is for you, as you get constantly discounted on tracks that users buy, which you've recommended to them. For example, if I am listening to Debaser by The Pixies, and five of my friends are browsing my MFlow profile and decide to buy it, I then get 20% of that track's sale to spend on more music. As they say themselves, "Every single track can be bought or shared with your friends with a single click." MFlow is also different as far as the celebrity and musician endorsements; radio DJ's, labels and artists themselves are on the site, delivering real opinions and giving the thumbs up on songs which you should check out. For example, only today did I see BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe's profile on the service, as well as Mistajam, Phill Jupitus, The Temper Trap and the big boys that are NME- a good mix of professionals if I've ever seen any, especially on a start-up which only really hit the scene a number of days ago. These personalities, along with the general public, share music by sending a "flow" to others where songs are delivered to "followers" in-boxes on MFlow. And, there's the usual sort of social networking profile so that you can tell other mflow-ers what you're about.
The site offers high quality 320kbps downloads, and tracks are around 79p. The bad news? It's not in Ireland yet, because of these silly licencing and legality rules. Sure, I'm all for legality, but can't an effort be made by the industry for music in Ireland? Eircom has already been hit with lawsuits and censoring/three strikes policy to combat the illegal downloading, yet no effort has been made to enable a service like this in the country. I'm sure something like MFlow or Spotify would do well in the nation- we just need it to happen.
If you're in the United Kingdom however, do check MFlow out. If you're not, you could always fork out some cash for a VPN.
