Beatnik (company)

Beatnik

Web logo in 2000
Company type	Private
Industry	Audio technology
Founded	1993 (1993) in California, United States
Founders	Thomas Dolby Mary Coller
Defunct	December 2011 (2011-12)
Fate	Dissolved
Headquarters	60 E 3rd Ave, San Mateo, California , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Don Millers
Products	Beatnik
Website	beatnik.com (defunct)

Beatnik, Inc., initially established as Headspace, Inc., was a company specializing in interactive audio technologies, founded in 1993 by musician Thomas Dolby alongside Mary Coller. Their primary innovation, the Beatnik platform, facilitated streamlined audio delivery on websites and powered polyphonic ringtones across billions of mobile devices throughout the 2000s. Notable clients encompassed Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung. In its early phase, the firm also produced music for video games including Cyberia and Obsidian.

1993–1996: Founding and formative period

Thomas Dolby co-established Headspace to fill the gap in tools for creating interactive audio content. Before this venture, he developed the Virtual String Quartet exhibit at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, which demonstrated cutting-edge audio-visual technology.

During this period, Headspace provided audio content for titles such as Double Switch, Cyberia, and The Dark Eye. In 1996, the company expanded by acquiring Power of Seven, a music publishing firm led by Psykosonik’s frontman Paul Sebastien, who then assumed the role of Director of Production. This acquisition broadened their music licensing catalog accessible to web developers.

The roster of composers included Brian Salter, Blake Leyh, and Kim Cascone, who created a wide range of styles for the Headspace Music Library. The majority of these composers contributed to the soundtrack for Obsidian, working closely with Rocket Science Games’ development team.

Headspace also purchased Igor Software Laboratories, known for the SoundMusicSys engine used in Macintosh gaming titles. This technology was further developed into the Headspace Audio Engine and gave rise to the Rich Music Format (RMF), which allowed for compact internet audio files utilizing custom instrument samples.

1996–2001: Expansion into online audio

Among the company’s initial clients outside gaming was WebTV, for whom Headspace crafted music and sound effects using the RMF format. This included additional collections from the Headspace Music Library, creating a software solution that optimized storage on devices while enhancing internet audio experiences for television users.

In 1997, Sun Microsystems licensed the Headspace Audio Engine to integrate with its Java virtual machine platforms. That same year marked the launch of the Beatnik software suite, featuring the Beatnik Plug-In designed for RMF playback alongside the Beatnik Editor for composing RMF content. Prominent clients such as Yahoo! and 7 Up utilized this technology for creating sonic branding jingles. Additionally, David Bowie’s official website showcased an interactive RMF adaptation of his track "Fame," enabling visitors to manipulate individual audio components.

By 1999, Lorraine Hariton was named president and CEO while Thomas Dolby continued as CEO. The company rebranded as Beatnik, Inc., emphasizing its dedicated focus on interactive audio through its proprietary Beatnik technology. That year also saw Beatnik acquire Mixman, enhancing its offerings in digital music remixing tools. The Headspace Music Library was distributed via compilation CDs through FirstCom Music.

Despite these advancements, Beatnik reported a $10.5 million loss in 1999 and proceeded with an initial public offering filing in 2000 aimed at fueling growth and improving financial outcomes.

2001–2011: Advancement in Mobile Audio Technology

In the aftermath of the dot-com crash and a waning interest in web-based audio, Beatnik redirected its efforts toward mobile technology by 2001, focusing on clients such as Nokia who required polyphonic ringtones without relying on dedicated sound chips prevalent in East Asia. Through a collaboration with Nokia, Beatnik refined its Beatnik Audio Engine into a compact version called miniBAE, tailored specifically for mobile devices. This engine was licensed to companies including Nokia, Danger, and Sony Ericsson, and became the foundation for most polyphonic renditions of the Nokia tune—arranged by Ian Livingstone—on Nokia handsets. The miniBAE made its debut in the market with the release of the Nokia 3510 in 2002.

Beatnik curated a team of composers to create ringtones for Nokia, while Nokia maintained an internal audio department. Although Beatnik advocated for the use of the more sonically rich RMF format, Nokia opted to utilize standard formats instead, which led to inferior sound quality that caused embarrassment for Dolby and his team. Displeased with the "low-quality" ringtone audio, Dolby stepped down as CEO in 2002; Don Millers took over the leadership role, while Dolby remained involved as a board member. Later that same year, Dolby established Retro Ringtones, focusing on serving corporate clientele.

Brian Salter, who had previously worked with Beatnik, converted Headspace Music Library content into the SMAF format designed for Yamaha MA chip-equipped phones in Japan and created sound banks optimized for devices running BAE.

In 2002, Beatnik introduced mobileBAE, a revamped audio engine that supported the standardized Extensible Music Format (XMF) rather than RMF. By 2005, the BAE technology had been integrated into more than 250 million mobile phones. Despite this success, the rise of truetone ringtones in the late 2000s—enabled by increased phone memory capacities—led to a decline in polyphonic ringtone usage. Consequently, Beatnik ceased all operations by late 2011. That year, with company approval, co-developer Steve Hales released miniBAE as open-source software.

See also

• Nokia tune
• Synthetic music mobile application format

External links

• miniBAE source code