Trade Feature: BOOMiO Music Sharing App
BOOMiO Music Sharing App
BOOMiO is a brand new free application that has been called the Snapchat of the music industry. Users are able to “boom” aka share, full-length licensed songs to one another as well as create playlists, chat to friends, and follow other users. The user can share a song with an attached message, and after the recipient plays the song, it “explodes” then giving them the option to buy the song, share it to others, or send a different track back.
Currently, BOOMiO is only available in the United States through the iPhone App Store, but the creators of the application will be bringing it to android users in early 2015 and users outside of the US soon after. “Right now, our music license agreements are U.S. only,” BOOMiO’s website states. “Adding other countries and making the app available outside the U.S. will definitely happen as soon as possible.”
Bob Case, co-founder and EVP of content and programming of BOOMiO, stated, “Europe is definitely part of our plans. As BOOMiO gains traction with users here in the US we look forward to the major opportunity waiting globally. Giving music fans a simple way to share their favorite songs is definitely not limited to the US! Our success will be powered by artists all over the world BOOMing their new releases and music inspiration to fans in a simple way that encourages more sharing.”
The application relies on the support of the major record labels in the United States to provide their database of cataloged music. The BOOMiO company has reached licensing agreements with Universal and Sony and has also been in discussion with Warner. The app was launched in mid-December with approximately two million songs, a number that will grow as the back-catalogs of the labels are added, including Taylor Swift’s collection that was notably pulled from Spotify.
BOOMiO co-founder PJ Pedroni told GeekWire, “In the beginning, we were nervous about [contacting the majors] because we thought maybe we would have to pay them a ton of money to do something, but they all see that we’ve built this platform with them in mind, and they love the promotional aspect of it.”
Case stated, “The fact that we have licensing agreements with the major labels will definitely play a role in our success. We build BOOMiO with the idea that artists should be able to share the full-length and proper version of every track to the ears of their fans. With BOOMiO, users are incentivized to share more music because they get more free listens and artists and labels benefit from BOOMiO because every play is properly monetized.”
BOOMiO is a platform that has the potential for a great deal of promotion as well as revenue for both signed and unsigned artists. Pedroni stated, “In Q1, we’ll launch a DIY platform for unsigned artists so that they can have the ability to upload their music to BOOMiO, we’ll ingest it, and then they can go out and start sharing their music with their fanbase.” A feature called “crowd boom” allows the apps users to share a track on social media platforms as well as to all of their followers on BOOMiO. Case commented, “We believe BOOMiO is helping to get music directly to the fans and in doing so, establishing a new revenue stream for every signed and independent artist on our platform.”
None of the musical content from the BOOMiO database will stored on the users phone but will instead be streamed, therefore helping to deflect music pirating. The user will only get one play free initially after downloading, having to share a track in order to earn another play. “This will give the artist an ability to promote a song that is protected and monetized,” Pedroni said. Even if the song is not bought, there is a good chance it will be shared with others, thus increasing promotion and the opportunity for more sales.
As the application is growing in database and promotion, BOOMiO is picking up more and more users allowing for a new way to share full-length music tracks between friends. Journalist Blair Hanley Frank of GeekWire stated, “They absolutely have the potential to succeed, especially with all the interest they have from record companies. But they also have to pick up a lot of users, and that’s going to be a long road. There are a lot of great ideas and great apps that still manage to fail for lack of interest. At this point, it’s too early to say one way or another what will come of BOOMiO.”
Though still a new application, users are beginning to take notice, downloading and sharing the app with their friends. BOOMiO user Amber Wolnomejski of Pennsylvania commented, “They have a lot of songs to choose from and I like that I can send a song to a friend along with a message. There is also a search and a top charts option I can use to find more music. I’m going to keep it, seems pretty cool.”
March 2015
Words by Kaitlyn Ulrich
