User:A Frog Prince/Bloom.fm

Bloom.fm is a London-based mobile-focussed music online service which combines free streaming genre and artist based radios, music discovery tools, a local library player and a catalogue of over 22 million tracks. The service allows a user to 'borrow' songs, making them available for offline playback. The maximum number of stored tracks is determined by the subscription level.

Bloom is currently available only in the United Kingdom on iOS and Android with a Web version in development and set for release at some point in 2013.

History
Bloom.fm was officially launched in January 2013 on iOS, previously being available to several thousand beta testers. The service reached 250,000 registered users in August 2013. The Android app was released in September 2013.

Catalogue
As of September 2013, approximately 22 million tracks were available on the service, including content from EMI, Sony, Universal, and Merlin (representing over 120,000 independent labels) and various independent labels through aggregators such as TuneCore, IODA, The Orchard, PIAS, AWAL, Ditto, and CD Baby. Warner Music is the only major label not to have licensed its content to the service.

Radio
The free tier of the service offers over 150 genre-based radios. Additionally, users are able to start a new radio based on most artists on the service.

Borrowing
Bloom.fm refers to the process of caching the track on a device as ‘borrowing’. This allows offline playback. The tracks are available to a user for the duration of the subscription.

Discovery
The artist discovery interface allows the user to explore related artists by tapping the icon in the bottom left of the player.

Playlists
Playlists of two types are available to all paying consumers. Normal playlists are created by manually adding borrowed tracks to them and smart playlists are created automatically by borrowing tracks from the predefined radio channels.

Local content
The application supports integration and playback of local music libraries. This feature is available for free on all tiers. The company has expressed a desire for the app to become the default music player for all users.

Pricing
The service offers a free tier (Bloom Zero) that gives the user access to streaming genre radio channels as well as artist-based radios. The service has been noted for a low entry price point. The subscription tiers determine the number of tracks the users can store on their devices simultaneously. The entry-level £1 subscription allows the user to borrow and store 20 tracks, the £5 tier has an allowance of 200 tracks and the £10 subscription allows unlimited streaming and borrowing. Notably, the subscription prices are different on the website of the service and Apple’s App Store. The company explains the higher prices in the App Store by stating that Apple takes a 30% cut of in-app purchases.

Other versions and platforms
According to CEO Oleg Fomenko, several other versions are in active development, including dedicated iPad and web apps.

Third-party service integration and sharing
Bloom.fm allows the user to use their Facebook account to log into the app. Tracks can be shared to Twitter and Facebook with an option to share via email. The service also supports scrobbling to Last.fm.

Partnerships
The company has partnered with music events in the UK, including The Liverpool Sound Concert, Tramlines Festival, and Toddla T Sound.

External link

 * Official website

Category:Companies based in London Category:Streaming music services Category:IOS software Category:Android (operating system) software