Splice Acquires Remix Platform Pioneer Indaba: Exclusive
Indaba brings to Splice more than one million users, as well as a team of eight employees led by Founder Dan Zaccagnino and CEO JJ Rosen.
The cloud-based music creation and collaboration tool Splice, famous for giving users signature sound packs designed by various electronic artists, has acquired Indaba, an online community that gives music makers the space they need to collaborate digitally, famous for its work with high-profile artists and brands on official remix contests and licensing opportunities. The financial details of the acquisition are not disclosed, but Indaba brings to Splice more than one million users, as well as a team of eight employees led by Founder Dan Zaccagnino and CEO JJ Rosen.
“Both companies have focused on empowering musicians for a long time,” Zaccagnino says in an emailed statement. “I believe by joining Splice the sum is greater than the parts, and we can do more for musicians together. In our DNA, Indaba is really a music company and joining a company with such a strong technical backbone feels very complementary. We’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible and our experience with complex music rights, collaborative content, and creative opportunities for musicians will bring a lot to Splice’s already incredible foundation.”
Zaccagnino will take over as Head of Content, while Rosen will act as Executive Vice President of Music Strategy and Industry Relations
“I’ve been in the digital music industry for over 20 years, having co-founded two successful music tech companies (N2K, Run Tones) and played an instrumental role in the evolution of new digital initiatives at Sony Music, before joining Indaba in 2011,” Rosen says. “Those experiences have given me a unique perspective and the ability to understand what is important to artists, labels and publishers at the intersection of music and tech. At Splice, I look forward to continuing to invest in building and deepening those relationships as we expand our offerings to the music community.”
At Splice, Zaccagnino and Rosen will be able to provide Splice’s community with the same high-profile opportunities Indaba’s existing users appreciate, while gaining from Splice’s unique strengths. The new parent company will also maintain and expand Indaba’s Rubber Tracks Sample Library, a catalog of more than 40,000 royalty-free samples, loops and stems, contributed by a huge list of musicians including members of The Roots and Earth Wind & Fire, Dev Hynes, Machinedrum, and collaborators of Jack White and Michael Jackson. All of this is aimed at creating new revenue streams for everyone in the growing Splice community.
“Through Splice Sounds, the company has created a business model that provides incredible value to musicians, while fairly compensating content owners – all while enabling better music to be created,” Zaccagnino says. “That’s a very difficult thing to achieve in an age where musicians have such limited resources to spend and people generally expect things for free on the internet. Instead, through Splice Sounds you have musicians paying to use other musicians incredible sounds while also creating an income stream for those same sound designers.”
To learn more about how these tools can help you in your musical or creative career, visit Splice.com.