Kim Dotcom, aka Planet Earth’s most assiduous self-publicist, has been dripfeeding information about the Megabox service for the best part of a year.

The “record label alternative” allows artists to sell their music directly to fans, taking a mooted 90% share in the process. Intriguingly, Dotcom also claimed that the site would pay artists even when their music is downloaded for free. Despite his high-profile legal, ahem, difficulties, Dotcom has continued to talk up the service. Following on from a trailer video last month, Dotcom has now revealed further details about the venture.

As Playground report, Dotcom has created a Megabox account on Facebook and announced that the site is “coming on January 19”. As ever with Dotcom, there’s some flamboyant thumb-biting going on – the date is a year to the day after the police raid on his New Zealand mansion. Dotcom also uploaded an aerial photo of his abode, writing “Here is where Megaupload was born and where Megabox is gonna be born”. He also upped a new image of the site interface, and promised that the venture was “free”, “easy” and “legal”.

As revealed earlier this month, Dotcom is also pushing Megaupload – newly rebranded as ‘Mega’ – onto The Cloud. The move will supposedly allow the company to dodge liability for potential copyright disputes: all uploaded material will be encrypted by default, meaning that the company itself will no longer be privy to whatever content is placed on the service by users.