Guvera

Guvera Ltd
Type of site
 Music, Entertainment
Available in 4
Headquarters Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
Area served Australia, USA, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, Ukraine, UAE, Venezuela, Vietnam
Founder(s) Claes Loberg, Brad Christiansen
Industry Music
Website guvera.com
Alexa rank Negative increase 155,257 (May 2016)[1]
Registration Required
Users 10,000,000+
Launched 2008 (2008)
Current status Operations ceased
Native client(s) on Windows Phone, Android, iOS

Guvera was an online music and entertainment streaming service founded in 2008. Guvera has agreements with the music labels in the regions where the product was available, which allowed for legal free music streams.[2] As of May 2017, Guvera has shut down all operations across all remaining Asian markets.[3]

Music streaming

Guvera streams music and entertainment for its users[4][5] and has signed licensing agreements with Universal Music Group,[6] EMI,[7] Orchard,[8] INgrooves,[9] IODA,[6] Mushroom/Liberation,[10] Shock Records, Believe Digital; in addition to the rights bodies APRA, AMCOS, BMI, RightsFlow,[11] Acodem, SESAC, Cash, Emmasacm, Extraphone, Peer, Prs/Impel, Filscap, First Music Publishing, Latinautor, Macp, Megaliner, National Music Publishing, Sabam, Sadaic, Sba, Sacem, Siae, Socan, Sonyatv, Sesac, Sgae, Solar, Warner Chappell, Universal Music Publishing, and Unisys.[12] Guvera distributes DRM-free MP3 downloads with bitrates of 256 and 320 kbit/s.[13] Guvera is also a targeted advertising platform,[5] which targets ads at relevant music genres.[6] Content can be streamed via brand channels from within Guvera's platform, and the advertisers have a role in the selecting music content.[14]

Guvera was available on web browsers, iOS, Android and the Windows Phone.

History

Guvera was initially funded by AMMA Private Investment out of Australia.[15] Guvera raised about $50m from its base of about 1000 smaller sophisticated investors primarily made up of accounting firms and other financial services businesses.[16] Guvera was incorporated in 2008, and launched beta in Australia February 2010,[17] and in the US March, 2010.[18][19] Guvera was initially released as a beta to a select group of users by invitation only.[20]

On August 2011, Guvera appointed Phil Quartararo as its Global Head of Music.[21] In September 2011 Guvera moved into new headquarters in The Rocket in Robina, Gold Coast, Australia.[14] In March 2012, Guvera created a mobile platform[22] and in December 2012, Guvera released mobile apps for IOS and Android in Australia.[23] An iPad app was then released in August 2013.[24] In March 2014, Guvera signed an agreement with Lenovo to become its worldwide music partner, with Guvera's music streaming service pre-installed onto Lenovo mobile devices.[25]

In January 2015 Guvera acquired Blinkbox Music from Tesco.[26] It placed the company into administration in June 2015,[27] having exhausted Blinkbox's financial reserves. The company had bought Blinkbox Music as part of an agreement with Tesco that it would pay its employees a higher rate of redundancy payment if the business failed, which it did not honour.[28][29] In 2015 the company received a Gold award at Asia App Design Awards.[30]

In October 2015 the former employees of Blinkbox Music filed a £10m Employment Tribunal case against Guvera.[31] The Tribunal awarded them £3.5m in damages, which Guvera appealed. The Employment Appeal Tribunal dismissed the appeal in November 2017.[32]

In May 2016 Guvera won an international Gold at the Global App Design Awards.[33]

In June 2016 Guvera was blocked from a stockmarket listing.[34]

Guvera began operating in only 5 markets: Australia, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates and in July 2016, Darren Herft stepped down as CEO and co-founder Claes Loberg stepped into the position.[35]

On 27 July 2016, the company shut down its operations in its home market of Australia and reiterated its intentions to "focus all efforts in key emerging countries, such as India and Indonesia".[36]

On June 27, 2017 it was reported that a federal investigation in to Guvera had started.[37]

On 22 November 2017 it was reported that Guvera had lost their appeal against an earlier ruling, which found in favour of the former employees of Blinkbox Music.[38]

In January 2018, former CEO Darren Herft was questioned in a public hearing by the Federal Court of Sydney about the company's operation and failure.[39]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Guvera.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
  2. ↑ "Billboard.biz Q&A: Guvera CEO Claes Loberg". Billboard.biz by Glenn Peoples, Nashville. 2010-04-10. Retrieved 2012-04-17.
  3. ↑ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 2017-07-14.
  4. ↑ Paul Cashmere (2011-08-12). "Former Virgin Boss Phil Quartararo Joins Guvera". Undercover. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  5. 1 2 "Exclusive: Guvera founder Claes Loberg, "We're not a music app" - The Music Network". www.themusicnetwork.com. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  6. 1 2 3 "Universal Music Group (UMG) Partners With Guvera Limited for 2010 Launch of Guvera.com". Universal Music Group, New York. 2009-11-18. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  7. ↑ "Guvera Limited Signs Deals With EMI Music & IODA for 2010 US Launch". EMI Music. NEW YORK. 2009-12-09. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  8. ↑ "Business Matters: Guvera, Google, EMI, Pitchfork and more". Billboard. By Glenn Peoples. 2010-07-08. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  9. ↑ "Ad-Supported Guvera To Launch in U.S. on March 30". Billboard.biz By Glenn Peoples. 2010-02-19. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  10. ↑ "Guvera Inks Oz Deal With Liberation". Billboard.biz by Lars Brandle. 2010-06-02. Retrieved 2012-04-17.
  11. ↑ "Guvera Taps RightsFlow For Publishing, Licensing, and Administration Services". RightsFlow. New York. 2010-04-01. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  12. ↑ "Ad-Supported Guvera To Launch in U.S. on March 30". Billboard.biz. By Glenn Peoples. 2010-02-19. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  13. ↑ Andrew McMillen (2010-03-29). "Aussie online service Guvera offers guilt-free MP3 downloads". The Vine. Retrieved 2012-04-17.
  14. 1 2 "Aussie firm Guvera steps up operations as it takes on iTunes". The Courier-Mail. By Phil Bartsch. 2011-09-30. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  15. ↑ "Guvera Raises $20M For Stealthy Brand-Supported Music And Video Service". TechCrunch. By Robin Wauters. 2010-01-18. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  16. ↑ "Music-with-ads start-up Guvera to list in US". The Australian. By Andrew Colley. 2012-03-29. Retrieved 2012-04-17.
  17. ↑ "Ad-Supported Guvera Launches Down Under". Billboard.biz. 2010-02-02. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  18. ↑ "Ad-Supported Guvera To Launch in U.S. on March 30". Billboard.biz. 2010-02-19. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  19. ↑ "Queensland entrepreneurs take out top honours". Ernst & Young. 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  20. ↑ "Free, Ad-Supported Music... With a Twist". Wired By Eliot Van Buskirk. 2010-10-18. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  21. ↑ Paul Cashmere. (2011-08-12). "Former Virgin Boss Phil Quartararo Joins Guvera". Undercover. Retrieved 2011-10-18.
  22. ↑ "Australian online music start-up goes mobile". Australian IT. By Andrew Colley. 2012-03-29. Retrieved 2012-03-30.
  23. ↑ "Australia's Guvera Offers Free Streaming Music On Android And iOS Devices". Gizmodo Australia. By Angus Kidman. 2013-01-15. Retrieved 2013-05-10.
  24. ↑ "Music-streaming service Guvera looks beyond the digital jukebox with re-engineered User Interface and unlimited free content". Campaign Brief by Tyler Brockington. 2013-10-24. Retrieved 2014-05-05.
  25. ↑ "Guvera scores grandstand streaming deal with Lenovo". The Australian by Supratim Adhikari. 2014-03-04. Retrieved 2014-05-05.
  26. ↑ Glenday, John (26 January 2015). "Tesco sells Blinkbox Music to Guvera". The Drum. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  27. ↑ "100 staff laid off at Blinkbox Music Ltd as Guvera dumps UK office". Music Business Worldwide. 12 June 2015. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  28. ↑ Hawkes, Alex (5 September 2015). "Tesco's music streaming service hits wrong note for staff owed £10m: Blinkbox fiasco as new owner fails to honour grocer's deal on payouts". Mail on Sunday. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  29. ↑ Sweney, Mark (8 October 2015). "Ex-Blinkbox Music staff launch £10m legal action after Tesco sale". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  30. ↑ http://www.music-asia.com/2015/09/guvera-awarded-gold-at-asia-app-design-awards-2015/
  31. ↑ "GUVERA HIT BY £10M LAWSUIT FROM EX-BLINKBOX UK EMPLOYEES". Music Business Worldwide. 8 October 2015. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
  32. ↑ "Guvera Ltd v Ms C Butler and Others: UKEAT/0265/16/DM - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 2017-11-23.
  33. ↑ "Guvera wins International Gold at Design100 Global [app] Awards - Mumbrella". 2016-05-18. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
  34. ↑ "Guvera float blocked from ASX".
  35. ↑ Billboard Staff. "Guvera CEO Darren Herft Is Stepping Down". Billboard. Billboard. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  36. ↑ Jones, Steve (2016-07-27). "Guvera to exit Australia but vows to press on in emerging markets". Mumbrella.
  37. ↑ 27, Zig Zag June; 2017 (2017-06-27). "Was Guvera the Bernie Madoff of the Music Industry?". Digital Music News. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
  38. ↑ "Guvera fails to overturn ruling in dispute with former Blinkbox employees | Complete Music Update". www.completemusicupdate.com. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  39. ↑ "Former Guvera CEO Darren Herft reveals plans to launch Dragonfly Music as he is grilled in court over company's collapse - Mumbrella". Mumbrella. 2017-12-19. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
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