MeeMix Ltd., which enables surfers to create customized radio stations to suit their personal music taste, has launched its beta site. The site targets surfers aged 15-35, and focuses on the US market.
However, the local website of the Israeli start-up is blocked, and bears the message, "MeeMix is very sorry to inform you that due to licensing issues our services cannot be provided to Israeli users at this time." Apparently, the Israeli Federation for Music Rights, which handles copyright for Israeli recording and companies and distributors, has not obtained approval to handle the issue, and each company is dealing with it individually, which takes time.
A number of similar websites operate in the online radio market, including FM.last, Pandora Media, and Jango, the main difference between MeeMix and its competitors is how it predicts users' musical tastes. In general, there are two ways of doing this. The first is the natural way, in which decision-making is based on the correlation between songs, in which personal taste is not part of the equation. The second method is fostering, in which decision-making is based on environmental factors, and correlation is excluded.
MeeMix deconstructs each song, artist, and user and the company's search engine analyzes the mix of the user's profile, music selection, and conduct to create a customized radio station.
MeeMix CEO Gilad Shlang said in response, "We've developed proprietary technology for predicting personal taste and it really hurts us that, as an Israeli company, we cannot provide our service to the local surfer community."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 3, 2008
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