SEATTLE-Mobile music start-up Melodeo closed a $9.5 million round of financing Friday and used the occasion to quietly disclose plans to begin offering a download service in Europe next year.
The software developer said it will allow customers to download 30-second previews of a catalog of up to 10,000 songs, then purchase the tunes over their handsets instead of having to use computers. Transactions will take between 30 seconds and three minutes, depending on track length and network speeds.
Melodeo has raised $11.7 million since being founded a year ago. Investors in the most recent round of financing include GF Capital, Ignition Partners, Intel Capital and Voyager capital.
The startup was founded by several top executives from predictive-text software developer Tegic, a fellow Seattle company bought by America Online for $325 million in 1999.
