Echo Nest Launches Musical Brain, Raises Capital

Somerville, MA-based Echo Nest, a startup focused on Web-based software for music search, personalization, and interactivity, made its public debut Monday at the Demo Fall 08 conference in San Diego. The company’s “Musical Brain” software, developed by MIT Media Lab graduates and company co-founders Brian Whitman and Tristan Jehan, automatically “listens” to and classifies digitally-stored music and attempts to understand music behavior and predict new music trends. Outside developers can access the Musical Brain through a variety of application programming interfaces. The company also announced Monday that it has closed its first venture financing round. But the size of the round, which was led by Commonwealth Capital Ventures of Waltham, MA, was not disclosed.

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/