Online music companies such as
Last.fm Ltd. and
Imeem Inc. have boosted their flexibility and popularity by opening APIs that allow developers to incorporate their services into sites and applications hosted elsewhere on the Web. But
The Echo Nest Corp. has taken that strategy to a new level.
The data-driven music services company provides a recommendation engine and related tools to third parties via its APIs, rather than aiming primarily for the consumer market as those other sites do.
Created by a pair of MIT grads, Echo Nest marries two key elements to create a platform for music data analysis: a cultural music analysis tool based on natural language processing of text found throughout the Web, and an application that analyzes the tempo, key, time signature and other features of a song file. By combining the two, Echo Nest has created what it calls a "musical brain" that crowdsources information about artists and songs while categorizing the music itself based on its intrinsic traits.
Imeem itself is an Echo Nest partner. The popular streaming music site and social network uses Echo Nest's technology in its personalized radio stations, similar to those offered by Last.fm and Pandora Media Inc. Echo Nest chief executive Jim Lucchese says the company will charge customers for its Web services on a volume basis, as well as develop customer agreements based on CPMs and advertising inventory.
Hedge fund Argos Management has taken a stake of undisclosed size in the company, which has also raised more than $1 million in grants from the National Science Foundation. MIT professor
Barry Vercoe also acted as an angel investor in the Somerville, Mass.-based company's early days. A new funding announcement is expected early this week; watch this space for more details as they arise.
-- Paul Bonanos
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FYI:
the MIT students are alumni with PhDs
the MIT professor's name is Berry Vercoe (not Bercoe)