Hype Machine Inc. founder Anthony Volodkin may have denied a rumor that his company is being sold to Viacom Inc. for $10 million, but his choice of words implies that something's in the works. Volodkin, who created the music blog search engine three years ago while he was still a college student, says the company has explored arrangements with "lots of people" and suggested that an announcement of some sort might come soon.
Hype Machine aggregates posts on music blogs around the Web, allowing users to find music wherever bloggers have posted it. The site also contains a player with which users can stream the songs. Recent lawsuits against streaming playlist creator Project Playlist and search engine Seeqpod seem to threaten Hype Machine's prospects, although it has escaped litigation so far. (The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Fred von Lohmann discussed how the Safe Harbors provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act may limit the liability of search engines here.)
All three sites take advantage of the vast amount of music offered on blogs without actively or directly providing content themselves, although Hype Machine admits to keeping a cache of frequently accessed songs so that they can be streamed.
The company has never revealed any information about outside investors. It generates referral revenue from sales of the songs previewed on the site, and also features advertising. - Paul Bonanos
See post on Hype Machine from Wired Listening Post
See April 29 post on online juke box litigation from Tech Confidential
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