Kim Dotcom Drops out of Baboom Project, Citing That 'Music Industry Hates Me'; Will Streaming Site Still Go Public in 2014?

Kim Dotcom, probably the most notorious individual in web pirating history, has announced that he'll be selling off his stake in Baboom, a streaming and cloud sharing site that he helped found, citing that "the music industry hates me."

That's quite the understatement. Dotcom (nee Schmitz) took torrenting to new levels during the new millennium. A former convicted hacker, the German native founded both Megaupload.com and later MEGA, two of the most notorious piracy sites in the short history of music piracy. After moving to New Zealand, Dotcom was held under house arrest for United States-based copyright violations related to Megaupload. Businessweek reports that among its 150 million registered users, the site cost the music industry more than $500 million a year.

Hence his decision to found Baboom during 2015 was a somewhat interesting decision, as its a site that works in a similar fashion to totally legal services such as Spotify or Rdio. According to Hollywood Reporter, the site was to offer performers themselves the ability to host streams or cloud shared versions of their work and collect royalty payments much like how musicians collect from streams gathered on bigger services.

Dotcom said the decision to leave was because his name on the project was proving to be injurious.

"Good bye @Baboom," he tweeted. "I was holding u back. The music industry hates me. You'll do better without me. Good luck my love.‎"

Dotcom held a 45 percent share in the company, which was scheduled to go public toward the end of the year in Australia. No word on whether this development changes those plans.