Music streaming service Bloom.fm has been shut down just 15 months after it first launched.
Having gone live back in January 2013, Bloom.fm had already amassed some 1.1 million users in the UK alone, but has been forced to close after its primary investor pulled the plug.
Making the surprising announcement via a blog post, a dejected Bloom.fm spokesperson stated: “We’ll keep this short because we’re pretty shell-shocked, it’s game over for Bloom.fm.”
Revealing the details of its speedy demise, the company added: “”Our investor, who’s been along for the ride since day one, has unexpectedly pulled our funding.
“It’s come so out of the blue that we don’t have time to find new investment. So, with enormous regret, we have to shut up shop.
“This is a poetically crappy turn of events as our young business was showing real promise. Our apps and web player are looking super-nice and we had 1,158,914 registered users in a little over a year.”
Bloom.fm’s former backer was Russian broadcaster TNT which had supported the start-up since launch.
Speaking with The Guardian, Bloom.fm’s Chief Executive Oleg Fomenko has suggested investment has been pulled due to an “organisation change on the side of our investors.”
He added: “Underlying this decision is economics - there is no business case at the moment in licensed digital music - margins are too low and up-front and growth costs are too high. The solution is a massive scale that then will allow for re-distribution of margins in the value chain.
"Most consumers are not willing to pay existing prices and you can see this in dominance of YouTube and by popularity of totally free ways of listening to music on the mobile, so we do hope that someone will re-start to offer truly mass-market streaming options soon. I am very saddened that it will not be Bloom.fm."
In what appears to be an emotional farewell to users, the Bloom.fm blog post signed off: “A massive thanks to everyone that helped us get this far. We’re absolutely gutted. But it’s been a real pleasure.”
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