Record labels and broadcasters sat on huge libraries of music and video, and almost none of it was ready for the internet. Loudeye, founded in Seattle in 1997, converted that media into digital formats and hosted it for streaming and download. It went public in March 2000, when streaming media was one of the most talked-about ideas on the web. Six years later, Nokia bought it for about $60 million.

Hire the Specialist

Loudeye bet that every media company would need to put its content online, and would rather hire a specialist than build the tools in-house. It digitized vast music catalogs. Later it built a platform that ran online music stores for retailers and mobile carriers. It also bought OD2, a European digital music distributor. Its customers included record labels, radio stations and retailers.

Heard by Nokia

Loudeye priced its IPO at $16 a share in March 2000 and listed on Nasdaq. Its shares fell sharply after the bubble burst, and it changed strategy several times. Its digital music platform caught the eye of Nokia, which was building a music service for its phones. In 2006 Nokia acquired Loudeye for about $60 million and got a ready-made music platform.

Cover: The Seven Trumpets, from The Apocalypse, Albrecht Dürer. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for trumpets sounding.