Streamwaves was an online music service founded by Jeff Tribble and Daniel Hexter in Dallas, Texas. Founded during file sharing service Napster 's legal troubles, Streamwaves was the first company to license major label masters for a subscription service, and the first company to launch a subscription service with major label content in 2002. [1] In 2005 Streamwaves became part of the Rhapsody music service owned by RealNetworks .
Streamwaves Inc. was founded in 1999, [2] when Jeff Tribble and Daniel Hexter began work on a legal alternative to illegal file sharing services such as Napster and Kazaa . The final product was a web-based streaming service that did not require users to download any software to play music or save playlists. [3] In November 2000, EMI became the first major label to license a portion of its music catalog to Streamwaves. [4] The two companies launched a separate music service, HigherWaves, on August 13, 2001,
The next major label was Universal Music Group , which signed a licensing agreement with Streamwaves in June 2002. [10] [11] Three months later, Warner Music Group became the third major label to license content to Streamwaves, which now offered over 150,000 digital songs and albums in its collection. Subsequent deals with other labels, including Sony Music Entertainment , Harry Fox Agency , BMI and others brought the size of Streamwaves' library to over 450,000 songs and albums. [ citation needed ] In 2005