March 14, 2000

Tonos.com, the Internet music company founded by Carole Bayer Sager, David Foster and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, is expected to raise $7 million in venture capital. The company also announced deals with other famed writers and producers, as well as the acquisition of two other Net properties.

The company, founded last year, said that Los Angeles Dodgers topper and former Warner Bros. co-chairman Bob Daly has joined the Tonos board of directors. Daly, who is Bayer Sager’s husband, also sits on the board of Shockwave.com, the Web entertainment company that—along with Mike Ovitz’s Sequoia Capital—is responsible for the $7 million Tonos cash infusion.

The private investment will be used to market the brand and launch the company's Web site next month, reports Tonos President and CEO Matt Farber. Until then, Bayer Sager, Foster and Edmonds say they’ll survive by getting all the spare change out of the Tonos couch and eating only ramen.

Though no filing date has been set, Tonos.com intends to go public.

The site plans to launch a mentoring program featuring some of music’s biggest players, and to that end has inked pacts with Diane Warren, Rodney Jerkins, Max Martin, Matt Serletic and Byron Gallimore. In addition, Tonos has annexed education venture NetMusic School and noted gossip board the Velvet Rope. The Rope’s founder, Julie Gordon, is now on the Tonos payroll.