Project Playlist Buys TotalMusic; Licenses Sony/ATV, EMI

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 19, 2009 - 10:56am.

Palo Alto, Calif. - Project Playlist, a social music site that lets users create and share song playlists, announced on Tuesday that it has acquired the assets and employees of TotalMusic, a digital catalog management and reporting system. TotalMusic was an initiative conceived by Sony BMG and Universal Music Group, which acquired the Ruckus campus music streaming service last year, but then shut down in February before launching any service.

Financial details of the acquisition of TotalMusic were not disclosed.

Project Playlist was sued by the major labels for copyright infringement last year, but several of the labels have since dropped their suits and instead licensed their catalogs to the service.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said the deal will allow it to host a streaming music service, and help with e-commerce and a set of APIs.

As a result of the acquisition, an undisclosed number of employees from both companies are being laid off.

Project Playlist, which counts 45 million registered users, also announced on Tuesday that it has signed licensing deals with Sony/ATV Music Publishing and EMI Music Publishing.

Related Links:
http://www.playlist.com

http://snipurl.com/iddrt (DMW previous coverage)