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.