Web music sharing comes to SA

Cape Town - Boom FM has opened its virtual doors, becoming one of the first major South African music discovery and sharing ventures in the vein of Spotify and Turntable.fm.

The service - based in Stellenbosch - boasts a number of options for users, according to Tech Central. But at its core is the basic function of allowing artists to provide music for inclusion and set up artist pages, and for users to share playlists, discover new music, and eventually to purchase.

The focus is almost purely SA-based up-and-coming music acts, and tracks are currently streamed at 64kbps, which according to founder Pete Matthaei helps with bandwidth costs and piracy issues.

Eventually users will be able to download their favourite tracks. The independent artist will pocket most of the money generated from these purchases.

The music is vetted and "approved" for inclusion on the site by a small team of content producers, and the brand intends to make itself known via presence on the local music scene. Matthaei told Tech Central: "We want to provide a platform for bands that are flying under the radar or otherwise getting swamped by big international acts."