Soundbreak.com breaks model, syndicates
Content isn't king, COO sez; 30 laid off
Soundbreak pacted with Web sites including Music.com, StreamSearch.com, Bored.com and Jester.com, as well as with British Telecom, to push its proprietary media player, which delivers a stream of live music Netcast by deejays along with band interviews.
As a result of the shift, the company has laid off 30 employees in recent weeks, almost half its staff. Thirty-five remain.
Content isn't king
"Everybody is going out of business in the content arena," said Beth Bradmon, Soundbreak's chief operating officer. "There is no way anyone can spend enough money on marketing to generate enough revenue. We got the execs of the company together and realized our fate is sealed like everybody else's unless we change."
Bradmon said that Soundbreak will work with the companies to which it syndicates the player in order to create new material for the content stream. Netco recently bowed a music news show hosted by former MTV veejay Mark Goodman, who is now exec VP of Soundbreak.
Company is majority-owned by Pasadena, Calif.-based technology incubator Acacia Research.
