Bloom.fm
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Bloom.fm was a London-based mobile music service run by Digital Distribution Networks Ltd., launched in January 2013 after the closure of its predecessor mflow. It combined free genre- and artist-based radio stations, music discovery tools and a local library player with a catalogue of over 22 million licensed tracks. Users could borrow songs for offline playback, with the number of stored tracks set by the subscription level starting at 1 pound per month. The freemium service was available only in the United Kingdom on iOS and Android, and grew to 1,158,914 registered users in a little over a year.
02 / Bloom.fm FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Bloom.fm shut down because its sole investor, Russian television channel TNT, unexpectedly pulled its funding following an organizational change, and the company had no runway left to find replacement investment. The economics of licensed music were unforgiving: licensing deals with major record labels required massive scale to justify the payments, and the company could not cover them. A public dispute with Apple, which banned the startup from its iAds network over alleged similarity with iTunes Radio, added pressure shortly before the shutdown. With funding gone and no time to raise more, the company closed immediately.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Rebrand from mflow
After the closure of mflow, the company rebranded and pivoted toward mobile on-demand streaming as Bloom.fm, a clean fresh start with a new mobile focus.
- Launch
Bloom.fm officially launched on iOS in January 2013 after a beta with several thousand testers; the Android version followed in September 2013. The service reached 250,000 registered users by August 2013.
- One million users; iAds ban
By March 2014 Bloom.fm had grown to 1 million registered users, but in April Apple banned the startup from its iAds advertising network over alleged similarity with iTunes Radio.
- Shutdown
On April 30, 2014 the company announced an immediate shutdown after its sole investor, TNT, unexpectedly pulled funding; it said it had no time to find new investment. Tesco-owned Blinkbox Music then offered Bloom.fm users a free trial lifeline.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Bloom.fm operated on licensing deals with major record labels (EMI, Sony, Universal and Merlin, though not Warner Music), which required massive scale to justify the royalty payments.
- 02
On April 30, 2014 the company announced an immediate shutdown after its sole investor, Russian television channel TNT, unexpectedly pulled its funding following an organizational change; the company said it had no time left to find new investment.
- 03
At shutdown the service had 1,158,914 registered users, reached in a little over a year, showing the scale achieved was not enough to cover licensing costs without continued funding.
- 04
No reliable realized loss figure with clear subject, period and basis has been disclosed.