Entertainment and sports giant Endeavor announced late Thursday that it has postponed its IPO which had been scheduled for this Friday. Endeavor is the parent company for major music and talent agency WME. ___________________ “Endeavor will continue to evaluate the timing for the proposed offering as market conditions develop,” the…
Category archives: Startups & Funding
Concert Crowdfunding As A New Way to Fund Shows – Is It Viable?
While a lot of industry focus is put on selling or – more often – streaming music, the reality is that many performers pull in much of their revenue from live shows. Given the costs and risks commonly associated with putting on live shows, more and more artists are looking…
Audius Launches To Replace Soundcloud with Free Decentralized Platform, $5.5M War Chest
Taking aim squarely at Soundcloud, Audius has launched the public beta of its free decentralized audio streaming platform that directly connects artists and fans. DJs like deadmau5 and Zed’s Dead are already backing the platform which has attracted $5.5 million in venture capital. The combined monthly listenership on Audius is…
Spotify Hopes To Make Money From Artists With SoundBetter Acquisition
In an an effort to appease shareholders and pull down a little more cash for its aritst, streaming giant Spotify recently acquired SoundBetter, a company which helps book musicians and producers while taking a commission for the service. Whether the gamble will pay off, however, remains to be seen. ___________________________…
Viberate Is Working To Give Artists Control, Standardize Key Music Data
As in many corners of the music industry, the data surrounding live music is a bit of a mess. But it’s a mess which the startup Vibrate is hoping to fix by creating a standardized system for the entire global ecosystem of live music. Similar to IMDb, the company would…
Music/Rights Tech Fund DBTH Capital Raises $38.5M
Virginie Berger’s DBTH Capital has raised an initial round of $38.55 million. The VC fund’s strategy is to invest in companies in media and music rights tech including blockchain, AI and rights infrastructure. The funding came from 9 unnamed investors and the fund is now merging with one of its…
Production Music Startup Soundstripe Raises Another $2M
Subscription-based production music startup Soundstripe has raised an additional $2 million in financing from Craft Ventures, just months after raising a $4 million Series A round. Craft is led by David Sacks, founding COO of PayPal and co-founder/former CEO of Yammer, and Bill Lee, a prominent founder and investor in…
Festicket Acquires Event Genius, Ticket Arena
Festicket has acquired UK ticketing and cashless POS platform Event Genius and its consumer-facing brand, Ticket Arena. A new offering, Event Genius by Festicket, will create an end-to-end platform that includes ticketing, accommodations, travel, marketing, analytics, access control, POS, cashless payment services and fan engagement tools. To date, Festicket, Event…
Cinq Music Adds $40M From GoDigitalMedia To Acquire Music Catalogs, Masters
LA-based Cinq Music has received $40 million in Series C funding from GoDigital Media. The funding will allow Cinq Music to acquire masters and publishing right and to further expand internationally. From l-r; Master P, Cinq President, Urban Music, Jason Peterson, CEO Godigital Media Group, Cinq artist T.I. and Barry…
LiveXLive Revenue Grows, But Losses Continue
LiveXLive Media, the live music and entertainment streaming service, announced record revenue for Q1 2019, but the startup is still bleeding cash. The company posted revenue of $9.5 million for the quarter, up from $7.6 million in the same period in 2018. LiveXLive attributes the improved revenue to strong subscriber…