SAN FRANCISCO – Monday, April 7, 2008 – imeem, the leading social media network, announced today it has acquired SNOCAP, the leading technology company for digital rights and content management. This strategic acquisition provides imeem with powerful content identification technology, a comprehensive Digital Registry, and an enhanced team of executive and engineering talent. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition also expands the mix of products and services the imeem social network offers to artists and music labels to help them take advantage of new opportunities to market, promote and make money from their music through widgets and applications.
“The SNOCAP team built a great technology platform that will be useful to imeem as we continue to grow,” said Dalton Caldwell, imeem’s founder and CEO. “Together we’ll build on that work in the coming months, and give labels and independent artists new ways to promote and sell their music through imeem, MySpace and anywhere on the web.”
“imeem shares SNOCAP’s focus on enabling artists to promote their music in new ways,” said Rusty Rueff, CEO of SNOCAP. “I’m excited about the new possibilities for the SNOCAP service, and more importantly, new opportunities for SNOCAP artists now that we are a part of imeem.”
SNOCAP created a proprietary content identification platform and Digital Registry to give unsigned and independent artists and labels control over the online distribution of their music. For the past year, imeem has used SNOCAP technology to automatically identify tracks as they are uploaded by users, determine if the content owner has permitted full streaming of their music, and manage payments to artists and labels for use of their music on imeem. As a result, imeem gives consumers the ability to upload, listen to and share music, while offering artists and labels the choice to make their music available through imeem. Artists and labels who make their music freely available for streaming on imeem share in the site’s music advertising revenue. To date, there are over 7 million unique songs in SNOCAP’s Digital Registry.
The SNOCAP platform also enables unsigned and independent artists to sell music on MySpace and other websites through the SNOCAP MyStore product. SNOCAP will continue to operate its products and services without changes to users’ accounts or services. Later this year, the company will make several enhancements to the SNOCAP MyStore.
Over 110,000 unsigned and unaffiliated artists, and independent and major record labels, are using SNOCAP MyStores to manage their own distribution and sell their music online. A wide variety of well-known artists use SNOCAP MyStores to sell their music, including The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Diddy, Nickelback, The Shins, LCD Soundsystem, Lily Allen, Sean Paul and Corinne Bailey Rae, among others.
As part of the acquisition, SNOCAP’s chief operating officer, Ali Aydar, is joining imeem as its vice president of operations. Aydar was an early employee and senior executive at both SNOCAP and the original Napster. He brings with him a talented team of engineers and music industry professionals.
SNOCAP was founded by Shawn Fanning, Jordan Mendelson and Ron Conway. The company was backed by WaldenVC, Morgenthaler Ventures and Court Square Ventures.
imeem is currently the third largest social network in the U.S. with over 24 million unique visitors a month. imeem’s network of embeddable audio and video playlist widgets reach over 100 million consumers a month, according to Quantcast.
imeem’s investors include Morgenthaler Ventures and Sequoia Capital. The company is based in San Francisco.