Melodis matches $7 million with its music discovery service

Venture Beat — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:29:08 -0400

Ever hear a catchy tune but not know the name of the song or the artist? Midomi, a web site and mobile service, lets you play a recorded song or sing a snippet of it yourself, and matches that information to its library of more than 17 million song samples. Then, you can listen to the recommended samples and go buy the song on iTunes or watch related videos on YouTube.

Midomi’s parent company, San Jose, Calif.-based Melodis, has just raised $7 million from TransLink Capital, JAIC America and Global Catalyst Partners, on top of a previous $5 million in funding.

This, I had to test for myself. Using the Midomi iPhone application, I warbled in my rendition of the perennial karaoke favorite Unchained Melody (the high part, you know, “I neeeeeed your loooooove”). Midomi matched my emotional outpouring to works of Stevie Wonder, The Flaming Lips and a bunch of songs that weren’t in English, but no Righteous Brothers. So I tried out something more within my voice range — the classic hit House of the Rising Sun — and the service worked.

Midomi’s not alone in trying to do this form of music search. Rival Shazam matches recorded tunes you play with its own library, but for better or worse doesn’t let you sing the tunes yourself. Both companies also have iPhone apps — Shazam has the 27th most popular free iPhone app, while Midomi comes in at 71st. Shazam has also recently raised $6.6 million in funding, on top of previous funding that the company told us was in the “multiple millions.”