German free music streaming service Roccatune has officially filed for insolvency.
After weeks of silence on their situation, Roccatune CEO Constantin Thyssen has now announced the news on their company blog. He puts the blame for the insolvency on a failed round of financing.
When Roccatune started last summer, the service was still called adTunes. But the name had to change because Apple found it too similar to its iTunes brand. Roccatune’s website is still working and playing music, although in July it was entirely offline. German music blog Musiktipps24 is not best pleased with the shutdown. They say Roccatune never paid for ads on their site. It was this which set tongues wagging on the German tech scene. Thyssen omits to mention the allegations by Musiktipps24.
Roccatune was a kind of Last.FM – streaming music sponsored by advertising. Users could look up their preferred tracks, listen to it from the website and make their own playlists. The company had deals with plenty of record companies to legally stream their songs, and referral links to Amazon and other websites to allow users to buy the corresponding CD, MP3 files or concert tickets. It looks like that wasn’t enough to save them.
Who needs it when we have Spotify.
I think the title of this article’s a bit disingenuous. I’m sure I’m not the only one whose eyes popped out of their head while scanning through Google Reader – it makes it sound like Last.fm *itself* is ceasing German operations, or a branch of Last.fm is in trouble.
The Last.fm connection is only tenuous, so name-checking it in the headline seems link a bit of a cheap ploy for clickthroughs.
Paul, do you think Last.fm is doomed because of Spotify?
I think they compliment each other – I may discover a new artist on Last.fm, now I can go and listen to their entire album on Spotify – how cool is that?
Ad funded ,its just not working. Try charging a fee for the service. The internet created this ‘get everything free’ monster now it has to tame it somehow.
None of these companies can survive without funding their business models are fatally flawed.
ie- they don’t have paying customers.
Still if VCs are stupid enough to keep pouring money into these things then its not going to change anytime soon.
Check out http://www.simfy.de
Also a German music online community
The have already 1.4 millione users license contracts and major label deals
…and are growing very fast.
I think this is the real competitor for last.fm in Germany. Roccatunes never was a real alternative to last.fm in Germany.
Ahh of course, blame a failed financing round, instead of the fact that the business has been unable to shape itself into a profitable state so as not to keep needing VC.
It’s always down to those darned evil VCers.
Spiralfrog, roccatune who´s next?
what about spotify! http://www.sizlocore.blogspot.com/
yet another proof that ad-supported models don’t work; but more importantly, “whatever is backed by the music industry will fail”
These people don’t just get it. Free/streaming /ad-supported music models will and cannot succeed especially when it is backed by the Music industry.
I know how this problem will and should be solved, but it’s just a matter of time.
Hmm Im from Germany and never heard of that site.
Probably went bankrupt because there are so many other sites that are more successful and already more popular, like lastfm.
Happily using lastfm
Maybe they should try pitching it to Jay-Z Roccatune fits in with Rocafella, Rocawear & Rocnation
@jonathan: i agree that the headline of this article is quite misleading…i am also a dedicated last.fm user and could not believe the connection being made by putting words like last.fm-germany-bankruptcy together.
@all: here´s a great tool i discovered lately: it´s called “Friendticker” and somehow resembles services like playforsquare, glympse or google latitude..but way more stylish ;o)
check out their iPhone app:
http://www.appstorehq.com/friendticker-iphone-60440/app
greets
Sam