Featured Pitch: eJamming

Company Description in 140 characters or less: 

"eJamming pioneered synchronizing high-fidelity live audio streams among musicians so they can play and record together online, in real time."

By Gail Kantor, Co-Founder and CEO, eJamming

All the activities musicians perform—playing, recording, writing, rehearsing, and arranging as well as learning, can now be done together live over the Internet.  All they need is eJamming AUDiiO’s pioneering software, a broadband connection, an audio interface device and a microphone.

You may be surprised to learn that until now, musicians haven’t been able to collaborate online in real time like other creative people have.  Technology has been the obstacle.  Bandwidth, speed and latency have made it difficult, and musicians have been patiently waiting for technology to catch up.

Our company, eJamming Inc., has spent the past decade pioneering
live, synchronized, high quality audio-streaming technologies that bring musicians together to play and record online across the world.  eJamming co-founder Alan Jay Glueckman and I formed eJamming in 2001 to develop software that fills the void that kept musicians from participating in the online revolution that has connected most other people over the Internet.  Previous online collaboration solutions for musicians did not address real time or synchrony.  Yes, collaboration tools and games exist, but none are appropriate for music-making.

For musicians, timing is everything.  eJamming AUDiiO’s Jam Mode facilitates playing online from multiple locations by providing the fastest possible transmission speed and full pristine audio to inspire the session participants and satisfy their requirement for the highest fidelity reproduction of their instruments.

And eJamming AUDiiO’s VRS (Virtual Recording Studio) mode allows the estimated 150 million broadband-enabled musicians and singers in the world to join four-player recording sessions and build songs track by track live, with everyone “in the room” together hearing playback and recorded tracks synchronized at each location.  

Importantly, musicians and singers can now also find just the right musician to play, write or record with using eJamming AUDiiO’s feature-rich social networking system.

Back at DEMO ’07, we showcased and announced the upcoming eJamming AUDiiO beta release and we’re proud to say we were named a DEMOgod.  Other accolades followed: OnHollywood 100; AlwaysOn 100; and South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Web Awards.  Alan and I were named among the “24 Top Technology Innovators” in Fortune magazine and eJamming AUDiiO was featured last December as one of Forbes’ “Top Ten ‘BreakOut!’ Business Ideas of 2009.”

Some background: I have been a vocalist and entertainment industry entrepreneur for more than 30 years.  I’ve collaborated with many leading musicians but am probably best known for having been one of the original Harlettes—Bette Midler’s signature background trio.  I’ve also collaborated with longtime friend Barry Manilow, hit songwriter Barry Goldberg and Grammy and Emmy-winning composer Patrick Williams, and have sung background for artists as diverse as James Brown and James Taylor.  Twenty years ago, I began a string of entrepreneurial successes with the formation of The Kantor Company, which created numerous national commercial jingles for a variety of clients.

Alan’s background is business, marketing and more than 25 years in show business.  He has created, produced and managed projects as a screenwriter, lyricist, producer and director, and his business projects have spanned movies, television, theater and the Internet.  Among Alan’s many accomplishments are producing eight movies and writing for Disney, Universal, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Viacom, New Century, NBC, CBS and ABC.  An Internet pioneer, he co-created the ground-breaking MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE THE WEB ADVENTURE for Apple Computer/Paramount Pictures, and developed Internet projects for Microsoft and Bill Gross’ first ideaLab startup, EntertainNet.  He earned a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Columbia University.

The talented eJamming engineering team, Alan, and I have focused on overcoming major technological challenges that had prevented such collaboration in the past.  The result is nothing less than a breakthrough: patented peer-to-peer synchronization technology that addresses the latency—the time lags and Internet traffic jams—associated with online transmission.  In addition to the stunning audio quality, eJamming AUDiiO technology alleviates dropouts that would disrupt the enjoyment and productiveness of a jam or recording session, solving a common multi-participant symptom of streaming audio among disparate distances.  Musicians can play, record and collaborate over the technology and hear their music the way they intended it to be heard, both in live sessions and when recorded (in CD quality) over the software.

Since coming out of beta in mid 2009, eJamming AUDiiO has surpassed major milestones, including transitioning from a free beta offering to a paid service, exceeding subscription projections and validating the company’s business model.

Seeking VC funds in 2010

Since our founding, we’ve operated eJamming in an extremely lean fashion, having relied solely on angel funding to get to this juncture, but we intend to seek institutional funding in 2010, now that we have proven the business model is viable.

eJamming currently makes money from member subscriptions.  Earlier this year, we unveiled significant enhancements to our technology and website—improving quality, adding new functionality and making it significantly easier to use—and embarked on an aggressive strategy to partner with leaders in the music and technology industries.  Our first partner is the undeniable leader in the musical instruments category: Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.  We are thrilled to have entered 2010 with the best live, online collaboration service for musicians and an exciting relationship with Fender, which is truly one of the legendary names and innovators in the music business.

The Fender partnership—as well as additional relationships we’ll be unveiling with other music and technology companies in the months to come—will extend eJamming’s reach into the sizeable worldwide community of musicians, representing a $7 billion industry.

Thus far, eJamming’s membership roster has grown substantially since partnering with Fender.  We are conducting a major promotional push this week at the SXSW Conference in Austin that promises to dramatically increase interest in eJamming AUDiiO, followed by a massive email blast to Fender opt-in customers.

eJamming – www.ejamming.com