Trebel (music app)
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- Gary Mekikian
- Corey Jones
- Luis Soto Durazo
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Audio streaming, music downloading |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Founder |
|
| Headquarters | , USA |
Key people | Vinnie Freda (President) |
| Website | home |
Trebel is an on-demand music download and discovery platform developed by M&M Media Inc. The company's business model aims to combat digital music piracy by giving users access to on-demand music at no cost while delivering fair compensation to artists and music rights holders.[1] Trebel has a patent that allows it to market itself as the only international music service in which users can legally download music and listen to it offline for free.[2]
As of March 2023, Trebel has a catalog of 75 million songs from record labels such as Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and hundreds of independent labels.[3][4]
Trebel is based in Stamford, Connecticut.[5] with additional locations in Mexico City, Jakarta, Bogota, Los Angeles and Miami. The app is available in the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and Huawei AppGallery.[6][7]
Trebel was founded in 2014 by Gary Mekikian,[8] who was previously the co-founder of answerFriend, Inc.,[9] which commercialized web based question-answering technologies and merged with Electric Knowledge, forming InQuira.[10] This company was eventually acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2011.[11] His co-founders at Trebel include Stanford classmates Corey Jones and Luis Soto Durazo, as well as his daughters Grace and Juliette.[12][13]
Mekikian envisioned Trebel as an alternative to music piracy after a high school classmate of his daughters was targeted by cyberattackers while illegally downloading music online.[8]
Trebel was initially released in 2015 under the name Project Carmen to students at Ohio State, Santa Monica College, Cal State Fullerton, UCLA and Long Beach State.[14] In its original incarnation, the service planned to target students at 3,000 universities and 30,000 high schools in the United States.[15] A beta version of the app was introduced in 2016 with content from Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group.[16]
Trebel launched commercially in the United States and Mexico in 2018.[16] In 2018, Mexican mass-media corporation Televisa also became a minority investor in Trebel.[17]
In May 2020, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Trebel was a digital broadcast partner for Se Agradece, a concert produced in Mexico by Televisa to honor frontline COVID workers that featured artists such as Rosalia, J Balvin, Maluma and Ricky Martin.[18]
In June 2021, Trebel reached 3 million monthly active users.[2]
In October 2021, Trebel signed a music licensing agreement with Merlin Network, the licensing agency for the independent music sector that controls an estimated 12% of the global digital recorded music market.[19]
In January 2022, Trebel announced a strategic alliance with MNC Corporation, an Indonesian media conglomerate, which also became a minority backer of the company.[2]
In March 2022, Trebel reported 5.2 million monthly active users as a result of growth in Latin America. In the same month,, Latin music star Maluma became a backer of Trebel and an advisor to Gary Mekikian, helping expand the service throughout Latin America.[20]
On April 18, 2022, Trebel launched in Indonesia during the finale of the music competition show X Factor Indonesia.[21] Trebel also signed a deal that month with Soccer Media Solutions, a sports and entertainment marketing agency in Mexico, to sell Trebel’s premium advertising inventory through Soccer Media.[22]
In May 2022, Guillermo Ochoa, goalkeeper for the Mexican national soccer team, invested in Trebel and became an ambassador for the company.[23]
On October 2, 2022, Trebel collaborated with Musica Studios, one of the largest music companies in Indonesia, on the production of a music festival in Jakarta titled Trebel Music Fest.[24] The event featured performances by top Indonesian music artists such as Noah, Nidji, and d'Masiv.[25]
In October 2022, Trebel launched in Colombia. The service reached 1.2 million monthly active users in Colombia six months after launching.[26]
In December 2022, Trebel collaborated with KFC in Indonesia on the release of a KFC digital music program using a product called Trebel Max.[27] As part of the program, KFC customers who bought the Crazy Superstar Combo package at KFC received a subscription to Trebel Max for 30 days.[28]
Trebel announced the launch of Trebel AI in May 2023.[29] Trebel AI uses ChatGPT-powered technology to generate playlists based on natural language queries from users.[29] In Indonesia, the Trebel AI feature was announced during a broadcast of the show Indonesian Idol XII that took place on May 8, 2023.[30]
In July 2023, Trebel reached more than 13 million monthly active users.[31]
In November 2023, Trebel became a featured app on the Discord app directory. Discord users that add the Trebel bot to their servers have access to Trebel's on-demand music library and have the exclusive privilege of being DJ's during server sessions with up to 150 concurrent listeners.[32]