ROLI acquires Blend, opens US office

ROLI​, the London-based music creation startup, today announced the acquisition of​ ​Blend , a music collaboration platform founded at New York startup studio betaworks​. 

This announcement comes less than a year after ROLI announced its acquisition of JUCE, the leading C++ framework for cross-platform audio development. 

Roland Lamb, founder and CEO of ROLI, said: “At ROLI, we are passionate about delivering the best possible experiences for music creators. Many aspects of music making have remained fractured and poorly integrated, in part because few companies have been in a position to innovate across a complex chain of different disciplines and product categories. We’re tremendously excited to see Blend join ROLI and can’t wait to work together to build a fundamentally more connected music creation ecosystem.” 

Blend gives music creators the ability to share their projects in source format, enabling them to collaborate, remix and engage with others in the global community. The social platform was founded by Alex Kolundzija in 2013 at New York startup studio betaworks.

In a blog post about the acquisition, Kolundzija said: “I founded Blend two and a half years ago with a mission to leverage the web as a collaborative music platform not simply for finished music, but for every step of the creative process. We’re thrilled to join ROLI and feel that they’ll be a great home for the product, the entire Blend team and the global community of Blend users.”                

ROLI will open its first US office in betaworks’s studios in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District to support its global market expansion. 

The Seaboard RISE went on sale today globally at US retailers including Guitar Center, Musician’s Friend, Sam Ash Music, Sweetwater, B&H, Alto Music, Chuck Levin’s Washington Music, and the MoMA Design Stores; Canadian retailers including Long & McQuade; UK retailers including Professional Music Technology, Andertons, and GuitarGuitar Digital; and retailers in Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

John Borthwick, founder and CEO of betaworks, said: “We are happy to have helped nurture and support Alex and the Blend team in creating a remarkable service, and we are delighted that they will be an integral part of ROLI. The impeccable design, engineering and breadth of vision demonstrated by ROLI in their products to date makes us very excited to become shareholders.”