mflow is an online social music streaming, recommendation and mp3

MP3

MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

-retailing service. It allows users to search for, stream and recommend music free of charge. There is no advertising and no need to make any purchases in order to be able to listen to any tracks or make recommendations (flows) on the service.

History

Founded in 2008, mflow is a social music sharing and downloading service, developed by Digital Distribution Networks in London.

The service was first launched as a limited beta, open only to invited users in December 2009. In its first iteration the application was exclusively a software download that ran locally on user’s computers. In August 2010, mflow started developing a rich HTML5 based internet application, eliminating the need to download any software. On December 3rd, 2010 mflow launched the first beta version of their web based service with a greatly expanded feature list. Mflow is currently operating as an open beta.

Funding

Digital Distribution Networks raised funding in 2008 from Russian TV channel TNT. The deal included multiple rounds of funding tied into one deal. Details and amounts remain confidential.

Social

Users are able to subscribe to (or follow) other user profiles and listen to the music they recommend. They can also re-flow the tracks, thus spreading music they like to their own followers.

In February 2011, mflow introduced playlists; bringing their feature set inline with other streaming services such as Grooveshark and spotify.
Another form of accessing this platform’s library is by following certain #(hash) tags. This method is a direct translation from twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

’s use of tags to categorize and make lists of certain topics, only on mflow, it is music that is being categorized and tagged. If a user is particularly interested in a certain genre of music, they can search the library for specific tags and get more refined musical recommendations.

Users can flow tracks to facebook

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

, twitter

Twitter

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

, google buzz

Google Buzz

Google Buzz is a social networking, microblogging and messaging tool from Google integrated into the company's web-based email program, Gmail. Users can share links, photos, videos, status messages and comments organized in "conversations" and visible in the user's inbox. On October 14, 2011,...

 and via email. A track flowed to facebook embeds a small flash

Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...

 based player on the user’s facebook profile. A track flowed to twitter will provide a shortened link via flo.mu

Bit.ly

bitly is a URL shortening service owned by bitly, Inc., a betaworks company. It is especially popular on microblogging website Twitter because it is the default URL shortening service on the website since May 6, 2009, replacing TinyURL...

 to the track page on mflow.

Music sales & rewards system

Uniquely, mflow rewards users for recommending music. 20% of the retail price of tracks and albums sold on mflow are redistributed back to the recommending user(s) as “mflow credits”.

Tracks purchased on mflow are delivered as DRM

Digital rights management

Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

 free MP3 downloads with data rates normally between 256 and 320 kbps Mp3#Bit rate, subject to availability.

Technology

mflow is written as a web application that uses some of the newest features available in HTML5. Flash-less playback is supported on HTML5 browsers using the audio tag. Backwards compatibility for older browsers is provided using a small embedded flash player. The use of HTML5 audio allows mflow to work from a variety of non-PC devices such as the iPad

IPad

The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

 or iPhone

IPhone

The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

. mflow is also compatible with most Android devices.

Currently (February 2011) mflow is known to run on Chrome

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or...

, Firefox, Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer

Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...

 and Safari

Safari (web browser)

Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. and included with the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems. First released as a public beta on January 7, 2003 on the company's Mac OS X operating system, it became Apple's default browser beginning with Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther". Safari is also the...

.

Catalogue

As of January 2011, mflow has a catalogue of approximately five million tracks. These can be found using searches for artists, albums, titles, labels, genres and users. Current label partners include: Universal

Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...

, Sony, PIAS

PIAS Recordings

[PIAS] Recordings is the recorded music division of the [PIAS] Entertainment Group, a European independent artist and label services company.The record labels that operate under the [PIAS] Recordings umbrella are: Play It Again Sam, Wall of Sound and Different Recordings.Aside from the three London...

, Beggars

Beggars Banquet Records

Beggars Banquet is an English independent record label that began as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin, and is part of the Beggars Group of labels...

, Ingrooves

INgrooves

Ingrooves is a San Francisco-based, global digital distribution and music licensing company that provides various distribution, marketing, publishing and administrative services for selected independent record labels and recording artists, film and video companies, print media publishers and...

, Skint Records

Skint Records

Skint Records is a Brighton based dance music record label owned by JC Reid, Tim Jeffery and Damian Harris. It was created as a sublabel of Loaded Records, also founded by Reid and Jeffery...

, Domino Recordings, Ministry of Sound

Ministry of Sound

Ministry of Sound London, commonly referred to as simply Ministry of Sound or MoS, is a nightclub based in London, United Kingdom and an associated record label. It was ranked fourth in the 2010 DJ Magazine top 100 clubs poll 2010. As well as the nightclub in London, there is another in Egypt and...

, IODA and many more.