Steve Case Launches New Music Service

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

November 1, 2007, 12:26 PM

Steve Case is at work once again, this time on a music service that is built on top of the Facebook platform and connects to a user's iTunes playlist to stream it to others.

Backed by case's Revolution LLC, Qloud (pronounced "cloud") also has the backing of several labels and music industry luminaries. It intends to help the user share his or her iTunes library with friends through the social network Facebook.

Since the service was first made publicly available three months ago, it has gained some one million registered users, and has totaled over 120 million plays, according to the company.

Qloud looks at a user's library of songs in iTunes, and then syncs it with an application on Facebook. The service isn't necessarily streaming music from your own computer: instead it is matching songs from your library to its own catalog of six million plus songs.

The actual linking between Qloud, the profile, and iTunes is done through a plug-in for the iTunes software.

The service also allows users to surf the libraries of their friends, and play and exchange playlists. Users can then add songs from their friends to their own libraries.

"Although there are hundreds of music sites, Qloud provides consumers with unparalleled choice, control and convenience," Case said of his service. "We're delighted to be partnering with a 'supergroup' of legends from the music and Internet industries to take music -- and social networks -- to a whole new level."

While only available on Facebook at the moment, Qloud said it is working on bringing the service to more platforms, as well as syncing with "additional media software."