mflow was an online social music
streaming, recommendation and
mp3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
-retailing service. It allowed users to search, stream, and recommend music free of charge.
Company background
History
Founded in 2008, mflow was a social music sharing and downloading service, developed by Digital Distribution Networks in London.
The service was first launched as a limited beta, open only to invited users in December 2009. The first iteration of the service was a software client that ran on users' machines. In August 2010, mflow started developing an HTML5 based internet application. On December 3, 2010, mflow launched the first beta version of their web based service with an expanded feature list.
Music sales and rewards system
Uniquely, mflow rewarded users for recommending music. 20% of the retail price of tracks and albums sold on mflow were redistributed back to the recommending user(s) as “mflow credits”.
Catalogue
As of January 2011, mflow had a catalogue of approximately five million tracks. Label partners included:
Universal
Universal is the adjective for universe.
Universal may also refer to:
Companies
* NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company
** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal
** Universal TV, a ...
,
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...
,
PIAS,
Beggars
Begging (also panhandling) is the practice of imploring others to grant a favor, often a gift of money, with little or no expectation of reciprocation. A person doing such is called a beggar or panhandler. Beggars may operate in public plac ...
,
Ingrooves,
Skint Records
Skint Records is a Brighton and Hove based dance music record label owned by JC Reid, Tim Jeffery and Damian Harris. It was created as a sublabel of Loaded Records, also founded by Reid and Jeffery. Along with Wall of Sound, the label was a le ...
,
Domino Recordings,
Ministry of Sound,
IODA
The Orchard is an American music and entertainment company, specializing in media distribution, marketing, and sales. It is a subsidiary of Sony Music, based in New York City. In 2019, the company sold off its film and television division, whic ...
and many more.
Closure
As of January 2012 the site was closed for business. A message on the company's home page stated: "Over the past few months we've been working on a top-secret new project... we can't share this grown-up mflow with you until we're confident it's better than anything you've used before." It was later revealed the site would be closed for good to make way for a new mobile streaming app titled
Bloom.fm
Bloom.fm was a London-based mobile-focused music service which combined free streaming genre and artist based radios, music discovery tools, a local library player and a catalogue of over 22 million tracks. The service allowed users to 'borrow' s ...
.
Directed by Thong Nguyen and Oleg Fomenko, the company posted public accounts in 2010 recording total liabilities of £7.6 million, and -£5.4M in net assets.
References
British music websites
British social networking websites