Online music startup The Echo Nest has raised $1.3 million in funding from existing backers, along with several prominent new investors, including Donald McLagan, the former CEO of online analytics firm Compete, MIT Media Lab director Nicholas Negroponte, and Raptor Capital Management chairman James Pallotta. The company’s platform analyzes millions of blog posts, reviews, as well as tracks themselves, and provides the information to online music services so that they can provide recommendations for users and offer updates on web chatter about artists. Customers include MOG, which recently launched a streaming service, as well as Spotify.
The company didn’t say how much cash it raised, although the amount is indicated in an SEC filing. Echo Nest last raised cash just over a year ago when it closed an undisclosed first round led by Commonwealth Capital Ventures. Money will be used to expand the company’s engineering team and for “major enhancements to tis music application development platform.”
The company has ties to the MIT Media Lab, where its two founders met. In addition to Negroponte, another investor is MIT Media Lab co-founder Barry Vercoe. Here’s the release.

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