End of an Era for Subscription Music Pioneer eMusic

eMusic, the online music subscription service pioneer who charged users a monthly fee for downloading songs every month,  has merged with an e-book distributor, K-NFB Reading Inc.  Through the merger, eMusic and K-NFB will be known as Media Arc Inc.

Adam Klein, eMusic CEO for the past three years, has also stepped down.  The company didn’t issue a press release but did send a brief statement to record labels.

Here’s the full statement:

EMUSIC AND K-NFB MERGE TO FORM MEDIA ARC, INC.
03/18/2013

Dear eMusic Partner, We are excited to announce today the merger of eMusic and K-NFB Reading, Inc. (d/b/a Blio, Inc.) into a single company called Media Arc, Inc., which will offer a comprehensive source of more than 17 million songs, 40,000 audio books and 600,000 eBooks. Both eMusic and K-NFB will remain as operating units of Media Arc, Inc.

As a new company, eMusic and K-NFB will leverage their combined technologies and expertise to create a consumer-centric interface that makes discovering, interacting with, and purchasing all kinds of media content more accessible and seamless for consumers. The goal is to be able to sell more content for our partners by providing electronics manufacturers, retailers, MVPD/wireless companies, and others with a multimedia content solution to better compete in today’s market.

Media Arc’s mission is to provide the best digital media discovery experience possible by leveraging cross-content insights to recommend new music and books to avid readers and music collectors alike. This will present both authors and artists with a unique opportunity to expand their fan base, reach new audiences, and of course sell more content. Founded by Futurist Ray Kurzweil with financial backing from former Microsoft CFO Michael Brown and media distribution giant Baker & Taylor, Blio, Inc. has built one of the most technologically advanced e-readers on the market. eMusic is a pioneer of the digital music space, with roots in helping music fans discover their next favorite artist or album dating back to 1998.