Music licensing platform Songtradr has acquired artificial-intelligence metadata and music search company Musicube for an undisclosed amount.
Santa Monica, California-based Songtradr said the deal expands its portfolio of music services that use data and tech-enabled intelligence.
Musicube’s technology helps match music to content and a brand's target audience. The German company’s technology enables customers to search for tracks, playlists and artists based on audiences, moods, genres, vocal features, instruments and tempos. Its database includes more than 50 million song titles, as well as more than 500 keywords.
"Musicube has approached audio analysis from an entirely unique perspective, and this acquisition accelerates our mission to increase the value and effectiveness of music in content," Songtradr CEO Paul Wiltshire said in a statement. "In order to have the world's best B2B music search and recommendation technology, we need premier metadata enrichment technology, which is a key component of the B2B music supply chain. Adding the Musicube technologies, data and extraordinary team to Songtradr will help accelerate our enterprise customer user experience."
In other L.A.-area tech news:
- Bird Rides Inc. plans to lay off 23% of its employees, or about 138 workers, mostly in L.A., reported TechCrunch, citing tech layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi. The affected jobs include everyone from senior managers to new hires across different business divisions. Bird told TechCrunch the job cuts will span across the organization and regions. In its earnings announcement last month, the Santa Monica e-scooter company said it was planning to streamline its business, including slowing its retail sales.
- The National Football League, NFL Players Association and L.A.-based gaming technology studio Mythical Games have partnered on “NFL Rivals,” a new NFL video game that uses blockchain technology, set to launch on the Mythical Platform in early 2023. The game will allow players to become general managers and compete against other GMs with their assembled player rosters and teams, building, leveling up and improving their lineups. In addition, fans will be able to own, collect and trade NFTs of their favorite players.
- Augmented reality startup Jadu has raised $36 million in a Series A round, bringing its total funding to more than $45 million, according to dotLA. Bain Capital led the round and was joined by existing investor General Catalyst Partners. Other investors include LG Tech Ventures and Alumni Ventures. Launched in 2020, Jadu is building a mobile app that lets players turn their 3D animated NFTs into playable avatars.
- Hedonova, an L.A.-based alternative assets hedge fund, has raised a Series A1 funding round of $18.4 million at a $330 million valuation from Chemie-Tech DMCC, a UAE-based engineering and construction company. Hedonova said Chemie-Tech's investment will strengthen its data center investing and equipment finance business, and comes on the heels of a recent $3 million investment in the alternative investment management firm Alts.
- Social group ticketing platform Fanimal has raised $4 million in its latest round of funding led by Bullpen Capital. The Venice startup said the new capital injection will allow the company to accelerate product development. Fanimal plans to launch a set of event organizer tools allowing venues and promoters to directly benefit from group purchase technology through primary ticketing services.
- HyreCar Inc. (Nasdaq: HYRE), a car-sharing marketplace for ride-sharing and food/package delivery services, has named Greg Tatem as its chief technology officer. Tatem previously held leadership, technology and engineering roles at Wine.com and Williams Sonoma. Tatem will be responsible for leading HyreCar’s global technology and digital operations and overseeing the development of innovative initiatives to enhance the customer experience. Tatem replaces Ken Grimes who will transition to an executive advisory role.
