Weeks before the takedown of file-sharing giants Megaupload, the site’s founder had announced their plans to create an “alternative music store”.

In an piece with Torrentfreak [via Digital Music News, via Shauna Myers], Kim Dotcom revealed his plans to directly compete with Universal Music Group “via our own music venture called Megabox.com, a site that will soon allow artists to sell their creations directly to consumers while allowing artists to keep 90 percent of earnings.”

If Dotcom’s to be believed, then not only would Megabox have allowed artists to keep a higher percentage of earnings than 99% of record labels, it would pay them for songs they let users download for free. Given the site’s popularity – it was once the 13th most visited website on the net – there’s no reason to think that had this happened, it wouldn’t have been serious competition for Universal and more.

“We have a solution called the Megakey that will allow artists to earn income from users who download music for free,” Dotcom outlined. “Yes that’s right, we will pay artists even for free downloads. The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works.”

Megaupload was shut down last Thursday evening, causing hacking group Anonymous to retaliate by taking down a series of websites including Universal Music Group and the RIAA. Kim Dotcom is currently awaiting charges from the US government, and could face 20 years in jail.