HE BLINDED US WITH FINANCE!

Beatnik Inc., an online music company founded and by onetime recording artist Thomas Dolby (who has added the surname Robertson), has—surprise—filed for an IPO. The four-year-old Netfit, which has deals in place with MTV.com, Yahoo! and several major labels, hopes to raise the round figure of $63.25 million from the offering, which was submitted last Friday (3/17). Underwriters are Robertson Stephens (no relation), CIC World Markets and U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffrey.

"The Internet is still essentially a silent movie," said Beatnik in its SEC filing. "We believe the next step in the evolution of Internet infrastructure will be the proliferation of rich media content across the Web, requiring the integration of audio content into Web sites."

Replied one record exec, "That's great. You need another tequila shooter, buddy?"

Beatnik’s software, apps and content have been created to integrate audio into a Web experience that it calls "sonification."

The latest Netsdination to be sonified is Shockwave.com, which announced today it will make use of Beatnik technology and content in its just-launched MixMakers application, which allows users to remix tracks from Britney Spears (Jive), Moby (V2) and Luscious Jackson (Grand Royal), among others.

Beatnik has applied for a NASDAQ listing under the symbol "BTNK," because Beatnik knows cnsnnts r wht cnts n tch stcks.