LUXEMBOURG, Germany (Hypebot) – Jamendo has just added an online "Pro" platform for low cost commercial music synchronization licensing. Launched in 2005 as a free download site, Jamendo boasts the world's largest aggregation 200,000 Creative Commons licensed tracks from 9000 artists. Recently, the company began monetizing some of the catalog by offering lower cost background music services for restaurants, hotels and retail outlets globally.
Artists receive a portion of the payments, put since Jamendo Pro artists are not members of societies like ASCAP, PRS, BMI, SOCAN, BUMA and SACEM, Jamendo charges less than traditional music atmosphere or synch services. In fact, Jamendo views itself as challenging "long-standing national monopolies" held by these societies and establishing itself as "a leading rights management platform for the 21st century", founder and CEO Laurent Kratz.
That may sound a bit ambitious until you learn that Jamendo is funded by Mangrove Capital, an early supporter of another disruptive service that found success – Skype.
