Kim Dotcom, the founder of file sharing site Megaupload that was shut down in this January by the FBI, had been struggling to get a bail. He finally got it suddenly on Monday morning. And, after being released from police custody, Kim Dotcom announced his new take on the content industry. This time, it would follow the law and it would be disruptive. So, what is it? Megabox. A music download service that will allow artists to sell their works directly to users.

MegaUpload was launched in 2005. But, this site had been shut down in January 2012 by FBI on grounds of copyright infringement and piracy. FBI called the Megaupload seizure one of the “largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States.” Since January 2012, Dotcom has been vigorously fighting government charges related to copyright infringement charges. After being arrested on January 19, he was released on bail with the condition not to access the Internet.

But, he has got plenty of time (he has been released on bail till 2013) to ready his next assault on the content industry. He thought to do something new, something buzzing. So,all on a sudden, on Monday morning, Kim Dotcom hinted on Twitter about his new venture – a new music download service called Megabox.

On Twitter, Kim Dotcom wrote the following messages :

I know what you are all waiting for. It’s coming. This year. Promise. Bigger. Better. Faster. 100% Safe & Unstoppable.

Megabox is Dotcom’s new music service idea that’s supposed to let users purchase tracks directly from artists. Here’s how he
described that service in a guest post for Torrent Freak.

We have a solution called the Megakey that will allow artists to earn income from users who download music for free. Yes that’s right, we will pay artists even for free downloads. The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works. You can expect several Megabox announcements next year including exclusive deals with artists who are eager to depart from outdated business models.

The Megabox will be hosted under the domain name – megabox.com. The service will allow “artists to sell their creations direct to consumers and allowing artists to keep 90 percent of earnings.” Kim Dotcom mentioned that the new business model has already been tested successfully with over a million users.

Kim’ latest tweet suggests that Megabox will launch this year with no doubt. But we’ve got no details except for the tweet. We are waiting for Dotcom to let the world know when his service hits the web.

By looking to Dotcom’s Twitter communications, it seems that several artists are already interested in joining the scheme. Now it’s time to see, what the U.S. authorities or music industry have to say regarding this.

Source :