ISRAEL 
HIGH-TECH & INVESTMENT REPORT

from the May 2014 issue


How an Israeli Rock Star Got Bob Dylan and Silicon Valley to Dig His Tech Startup

Yonni Bloch's latest project began with a flash of inspiration in the recording studio. Bloch, an Israeli rock star and former host of the local version of "American Idol," couldn't come to an agreement with his band mates over who would get to play a particular solo.

"In the middle of the argument, we said, 'You know what? Let's just record all the solos and see what people choose,'" he says.

To make that happen, Bloch, 32, swapped his guitar for a laptop. He and his fellow musicians formed Interlude, a technology company that lets fans instantly remix songs and videos. Their startup helps musicians, directors and advertisers create interactive videos that allow Web watchers to switch between various scenes with the tap of a button.

Interlude's best-known project is an interactive music video for "Like a Rolling Stone," which singer Bob Dylan commissioned last year. The video lets viewers flip through 16 mock television channels, using the up and down arrows on the keyboard, where different characters are shown lip-syncing the classic Dylan hit. Fans tuned in more than 70 million times to create their own custom videos. Bloch, Interlude's chief executive officer, told Bloomberg Television that the Dylan video contains "billions of different combinations."



Reprinted from the Israel High-Tech & Investment Report May 2014

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