05.06.08 | Incubator | Jamendo

Jamendo has been hosted at Technoport since back in December 2004 when the three founders (Sylvain Zimmer, Pierre Gérard and Laurent Krazt) decided to turn this project into reality. Today this project has become a worldwide recognised brand that stands for giving to the Internet users the opportunity to discover, listen and download free of charge and legally a huge variety of music.

One of the creative elements of this project is definitely the application of the creative commons licensing model to an industry that for years wasn’t able or ready to bring innovation into their distribution channels. By choosing among Creative Commons licenses, the artist indicates directly to the Internet user which use he can make out of his music: listen, download, diffuse, modify, etc. Jamendo leads thus to a new model of distribution, payment and disintermediation. Jamendo’s aim is also to offer a successful ecosystem to self-produced artists and allow them to generate incomes (Jamendo shares revenues with the most famous artists of the platform) and find a larger audience. The first successes appeared rapidly, like for example, the Parisian duo Lonah or the American Rob Costlow who owe their success to the visibility they received thanks to Jamendo.

A second key date for Jamendo (after their launch in 2004!) was July 2007 when they announced the closing of their first round of financing from Mangrove Capital Partners, the well-known early backer of Skype. “With this funding, we plan to become the undisputed global player of free music. More than a music-sharing platform we are economically supporting and promoting the long tail of music. We have a proven business model where music is not only proposed for free to end consumers but we are also closing an increasing number of partnership agreements and licensing deals”, declared Laurent Kratz, founder and CEO of Jamendo. A few months later they signed an important partnership agreement and licensing deal with Dailymotion.

2008 finally has been until now the year of MIDEM08 (and the positive press review); of improvements of their platform (ergonomics and in the streaming and downloading options) as well as the introduction of new languages. On May 1st Jamendo finally took off and left the incubator for their new offices in Luxembourg town. Pictures available on their blog.

As of today the company has more then 9 300 on-line published albums (watch out for the 10.000 album!) and more than 339 000 active members worldwide. With more than 1.5 million unique visitors and 150 000 albums downloaded per month, Jamendo became the biggest platform of free and legal music in Europe.

Fields of expertise:  Music Distribution Platform
Brand:  Jamendo
Employees:  22
Clients: Artists and fans of music
Geographical coverage: Worldwide

Jamendo SA; 41 Avenue de la Gare; L-1611 Luxembourg ; Tel: +352 26 53 421; FAX: +352 26 53 42 42; www.jamendo.com,http://blog.jamendo.com, contact@jamendo.com