More on Radionomy’s acquisition of ShoutCast and Winamp

radionomy logo canvasSynergy and enhancement — those are the touchstones of Radionomy‘s acquisition of ShoutCast and Winamp from AOL, which closed last week. We spoke with Thierry Ascarez, VP of Business Development for Radionomy, about how he views the integration of two iconic brands into Radionomy’s Internet radio platform. “We are increasing our presence in the U.S.,” Ascarez told us. Radionomy is a Belgian company, HQ’d in Brussels.

But the exciting promise of the acquisition, according to Ascarez, will be realized by existing ShoutCast producers.

“In working on the ShoutCast product, the main goal is improving the experience for producers. All the tools that are available in Radionomy will be available to ShoutCast. We will improve the experience of producing a ShoutCast station, especially in meeting the audience, and monetizing the station. The existing Radionomy tools will help ShoutCast producers, as will our partnership with TargetSpot. We also have real-time analytics for producers.” Ascarez emphasized that integrating production tools across the two platforms will take development time.

In December, Radionomy and audio ad network TargetSpot announced a partnership with a structural underpinning that is not quite a merger, but is definitely an affiliation. The bundling of 50,000 ShoutCast stations with Radionomy’s 6,000 streams would seem to augment TargetSpot’s inventory. “I won’t speak for TargetSpot,” Ascarez told us, “and the two companies remain independent, which is important. But for them, it’s a new publisher, in a way. That will help their offering to advertisers.”

The acquisition of media player Winamp is less obviously synergistic, but Ascarez likes the possibilities. “There is a huge community around the Winamp player. I love the product. How will it fit in? The idea is to build a universal player for online media. We want it to work in the car, in mobile, everywhere audio is consumed. All our stations will be gathered into the Winamp player, which makes it easy for the user.”

As expected Ascarez declined to comment on the cost of Radionomy’s acquisition, or the value of AOL’s 12% investment in the company.

Brad Hill