Offering high quality audio and video downloads of concerts, Soundhalo counts none other than Thom Yorke among its supporters
Thom Yorke's public split with Spotify is barely out of the news, and he's already run off with a new online music service: Soundhalo .
Let's be clear from the start: the two apps don't cater to the same needs, so the drama isn't quite as dramatic as it first seems. In fact, Soundhalo is a clever new concept that could add another layer to the online music industry, rather than competing with the services already out there.
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Watch live music as it happens
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The British start-up aims to let you "watch, download and share artist endorsed live music as it happens". And what a great idea this is.
There's no doubt that live performances bring more to your ears than studio recordings – and there's a huge appetite for live videos, as a glance across the shaky, grainy videos that pop up on YouTube in their thousands the day after a gig will prove.
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Better royalties than Spotify?
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Thom Yorke took his music off Spotify because he believed the service wasn't adequately compensating musicians, particularly emerging artists. So how is Soundhalo, with whom Yorke teamed up for his most recent Atoms For Peace show, any different?
"We cannot comment on other services," soundhalo Product and Marketing Director Eddy Jackson told us, "but the Soundhalo model, which allows users to 'own' artist-endorsed audio and video content by downloading it, ultimately means the artist sees a better profit."
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£9.99 for a gig, 99p for a song
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Gigs, such as Yorke side-project Atoms For Peace's recent London show, are available in their entirety or on a song-by-song basis in DRM-free MP4 format through Soundhalo's website or an Android app (iOS users must download first through the web app, then sync to an iOS device). Videos are in 320p or 480p and 720p HD formats.
A whole concert costs £9.99, with individual tracks available for 99p a pop. You can download not only past gigs, but also ones that are currently in progress: songs will be ready and waiting just seconds after they're performed live.
Currently Soundhalo is available for Android , iOS (through a mobile site) and desktop only, but the company is working on BlackBerry and Windows Phone versions that we're told are "coming soon".
Wouldn't it be nice if this were the beginning of the end of smartphones being wafted around at every gig?
