Ezmo, the Norwegian Music 2.0 startup launched on June 8th 2007, is turning off the lights on March 14th 2008. A long, but unsuccessful struggle to secure further financing is the reason reported on the company blog. The owner, FAST Search & Transfer (soon to be Microsoft), is pulling the plug on what may have been a very expensive showcase of their social multimedia platform software.
As a user of Ezmo, you get a Flash-based media player and media library, and an opportunity to upload your entire collection of audio files to their servers. Your music will then be available on any computer with Internet and a soundcard, mobiles included. The slick user interface is implemented in Adobe Flex. You get to listen to all your friends music, too. That is if you only have 10 friends.
It is this pequliar “10 friends” limitation that created a buzz when Ezmo was launched. You see, file sharing between friends is permitted in Norway. It’s a bit of a legal gray zone, but generally considered as fair use. Ezmo set out to exploit this “loophole” by putting a limit on the number of friends you could share your music with. It generated some headlines, but the record industry didn’t drag them to court then.
Their revenue model is based on music sales and promotion, but none of the major labels and their interest organizations were apparently interested in using Ezmo as a marketing and distribution channel. With no natural cash flow in sight, and without additional financing, they had no alternative but to shut the service down and close the company.
It’s a shame, because I’ve had the privilege of meeting with the creators of the technology that powers Ezmo on several occations, discussing the capabilites of the platform. Besides audio streaming and uploading it provides multimedia transcoding for multiple channels and devices, integration with e-commerce solutions, social recommendation and community features like chatting and profile management. Ezmo didn’t get time to do it all, unfortunately.
Ezmo isn’t alone in providing web-based media storage and access. MP3Tunes, MediaMaster and Anywhere.FM all provide similar services, and the Ezmo team encourages all disappointed Ezmo users to seek out a replacement. If you don’t feel the need to upload all your music, and you live in the UK, US or Germany, perhaps the new full-track service from Last.fm is for you.
Major record labels are the present, but I’m not so sure Ezmo and the likes are the future. Will access to music eventually replace ownership? Will music flow like water? People feel differently.
On a personal note, the last CD I bought went straight onto my iPod and I didn’t even look at the innersleve. Now if my iPod was connected to Last.fm, why would I even bother spending money purchasing music CD and files, as long as Last.fm gives me what I want, when I want it?
That’s me, though, and it’s totally cool if you disagree.
Today I met up with my friend Klaus Rødahl, film producer and half of 
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