Mixman
| Private | |
| Founded | April 1994 |
| Founder |
Eric Almgren, Chairman Josh Gabriel, Director and musical and product contributor |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, United States |
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
|
Key people
|
Richard Appelbaum, CEO, Director |
| Website | Mixman.com |
Eric Almgren, Chairman
Mixman is an American interactive music company, which produces computer software that allows for creation and manipulation of music files.
In 1996, Mixman released the first interactive CD that allowed music fans to perform in real-time with zero-latency and utilizing auto-beat matching. With patented synchronous technology, and a flexible proprietary audio format, Mixman develops software to deepen the creative, performing music experience.
Mixman Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1994 by Josh Gabriel and Eric Almgren. The mission was to create powerful but easy-to-use interactive music creation tools that enabled the user to make and perform the music with actual digital song elements of their favorite artist and musical styles of passion. Gabriel’s original concept came from a machine he developed performing dance music in clubs while in college. The machine generated light beams and as the dancer/performer broke the light beams with his hands, musical elements were triggered and played in a synchronized music mix. The real time performance nature of this original idea remains as the fundamental uniqueness of Mixman software today. Later Gabriel built a prototype with a joystick, sampler and computer that demonstrated the first user playable experience with popular dance songs. A team to develop the hardware device prototype that could work with “music cartridges” much like video game cartridges. Within a year the prototype was built that consisted of a 4”x7” box (which contained electronics and firmware), a hardware controller and music cartridges that contained the music data for each song. The industrial designs of the hardware controller were designed by Scott Summit of Summit ID who had designed notable products for Palm, Silicon Graphics and Apple. Fundamental patents were also filed on the synchronization technology.
Early seed funding for the company was provided by Almgren, Roger Summit and Dick Asher. Dr. Roger Summit, founder and CEO of Dialog Corporation, and electronic music enthusiast was the first board member and business advisor to the company. Gordy Davidson, along with his law firm, Fenwick & West, advised the company on its formation, early corporate development, facilitated patents filings and venture capital financing. Dick Asher, former CEO of Polygram Music and President of Columbia Records (now Sony), also joined the board and became an investor and consultant to the company to facilitate working relationships with major record labels.
Financing for consumer hardware at the time was very difficult. Venture investors at the time in the consumer space were looking more for software companies that carried higher margins and didn’t have the high marketing and inventory costs of consumer hardware. Mixman began developing a software prototype and was able to obtain its Series A financing to develop and sell software and music content via licensing to OEM’s and record companies and via the internet. The financing was led by Donald McKinney who was founder and CEO of International Networking Devices and ex-Sequoia Venture Capital, and several angel financiers.
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