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Apple Acquires SoundJam, Programmer for iMusic

Sources have now confirmed a rumor that was first published on AppleInsider over a month ago. Though it has been kept one of Apple's most prized secrets in recent months, the word from insiders is that Apple has officially acquired the rights to Casady & Greene's SoundJam MP application.

SoundJam MP is one of, if not the most highly acclaimed MP3 players for the Macintosh. In addition to the code to SoundJam MP, Apple also acquired Casady & Greene's head programmer, Jeff Robbin. Robbin, who is considered to be one of the cofounders of Casady & Greene, was the head programmer on many of the company's applications such as Conflict Catcher and SoundJam MP.

According to reliable sources, Robbin now holds a position at Apple where he has been overseeing the development of iMusic. iMusic, which sources say is due to make its debut at this week's Macworld expo, is an Apple branded MP3 player and custom CD burner application that will allow consumers to easily organize, play, and burn MP3 files to CD.

iMusic will combine the CD Master software Apple recently purchased from Radialogic with the SoundJam MP software it purchased several months ago from Casady and Greene, sources said. The revised code from both applications will be wrapped in a stylish iMovie like interface and will be bundled with new Apple computers that are expected to sport hybrid DVD/CD-RW drives developed by Pioneer.

As mentioned in previous articles on iMusic, the entire project has been a rushed emergency solution to pick up market share Apple lost when it underestimated consumer demand for CD-RW drives. According to sources, Apple originally projected that DVD and DVD-Recordable drives would be the wave of the future, but as recent history has shown, Apple was once again slightly ahead of its time.