For an online music startup, one way to avoid striking costly deals with record labels while keeping them from squashing you with lawsuits is to rely on legal, authorized content already floating around on the Web. Qbox, a year-old New York startup that officially
launched today, has constructed a free desktop player that draws music from existing social networks such as MySpace, YouTube and Bebo, allowing users to organize music into playlists from a variety of disparate sources.
Several services compile music from around the Web.
Project Playlist Inc., for example, draws on a large pool of unlicensed music lying around the blogosphere--indeed, it's been
sued by three of the four major labels. Qbox doesn't intend to connect users with blog-hosted MP3 files, though; it's focusing on providing a convenient interface through which existing legal content can be played. CEO Peter Keum says it hasn't even had to negotiate royalty payments to do so because the end user views other sites' content as if he were using a Web browser.
Still pre-revenue, Qbox intends to support itself through advertising and affiliate marketing, including sales of music downloads and ringtones. Keum says it's raised "less than a couple million dollars" from angel investors and other individuals, but the company is planning an institutional round later this year, and it is already holding conversations with media companies and venture firms.
-- Paul BonanosSee June 4 press release from QboxSee Apr. 29 post regarding Project Playlist lawsuit
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