The story
Jamendo S.A., originally created under the name Peermajor SARL in 2004, was launched in January 2005. It was funded in June 2007 by Mangrove Capital Partners, Skype's investors.
Starting in January 2007, Jamendo tested an advertising revenue sharing program which was later dropped. In December 2007, the second version of the website was launched, offering a new design and new functionalities. On 18 June 2008 the platform passed the 10,000 albums milestone.
At the end of 2008, Jamendo launched Jamendo PRO, a music licensing platform for commercial use, making Jamendo music available for the synchronization of audiovisual projects (film, TV, advertising, web and corporate videos, video games, apps, etc.) and as background music in public places (stores, restaurants, hotels, etc.).
June 2009 saw the release of Jamendo's first mobile applications for Android and iOS. That same month, Jamendo's co-founder and CTO Sylvain Zimmer received the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in Luxembourg. In December 2009, a partnership was made with Deezer, giving Jamendo artists the opportunity to release their music on Deezer as well.
Jamendo faced financial difficulties in early 2010 and started looking for investors. Stability returned when MusicMatic (now Storever), a Brussels-based company specialized in music solutions for businesses and public places, entered Jamendo's capital.
In August 2011, Jamendo obtained the "PUR" label from the French authority HADOPI, which was renewed the following year.
On 24 April 2012, the third version of the website was launched. It offered a new design, new functionalities allowing for more artist promotion, ten new genre-specific radio channels, etc.
On 8 December 2014, Jamendo PRO turned into Jamendo Licensing, showing an entirely reshaped version of their commercial service.
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As of October 2015, Jamendo officially became Jamendo Music, showing its willingness to clearly differentiate the two parts of the company (Jamendo Music and Jamendo Licensing). Jamendo Music intends to provide music for private use only, and Jamendo Licensing is a marketplace where anyone can sell and buy music, whether it is for a multimedia project (television, movie, advertising, video production) or as background music for commercial space.
By 2018, Jamendo was a subsidiary of Belgian company AudioValley.
In February 2019 Jamendo has adopted the Independent Management Entity (IME) status. Created by the Directive 2014/26/EU transposed in Luxembourg Law in April 2018, the IME legal status allows commercial entities to perform activities similar to national copyright and related rights Collective Management Organizations such as, for copyright, SACEM, SGAE, GEMA and SIAE.
From Wikipedia’s article on Jamendo, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4