February 2, 2015 at 12:3515 European startups changing the music industry
- Transfer
The number of music startups is increasing, so we decided that the time had come [original article published in September 2014 - approx. trans.] talk about 15 European companies that are changing the music industry.
Given that the Spotify streaming service has the opportunity to broadcast video ads, and SoundCloud has recently launched an advertisement within its platform, European music startups need to work more actively to monetize their services.
And this is in a situation when the British music streaming startup Bloom.fm and the Israeli social music service Serendip were forced to leave the stage.
But this does not stop European entrepreneurs from trying to create a profitable product in the music field. Every year, at conferences like Midem and Berlin Music Week, enthusiastic newcomers to the music world enter the scene with the intention of radically changing the music world.
And as the number of technological music startups continues to grow, it's time to talk about 15 European companies that have really changed some aspects of the music industry, especially those related to social services, music streaming, its creation and music marketing.
1. Spotify
Head office: Stockholm, Sweden About startup: Founded in 2006, this popular music streaming service is now available in 57 countries around the world. The company, whose active users, according to various estimates, is more than 40 million people, and more than 10 million paid subscribers, received about $ 537 million of funding. They also have an excellent office in Stockholm.
2. Deezer
Head office: Paris, France About startup: This music streaming service was founded in 2006 and is now distributed in 180 countries around the world. The company was funded by approximately $ 150 million. Deezer says that the number of active users of the service is 16 million, and the number of their paid subscribers has increased to 5 million.
3. Zvooq
Head office: Moscow, Russia About the startup: Zvooq (in other words, “Sound”) is a music streaming service available in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Recently, its creators announced that the startup went to the first round of financing with an investment of $ 20 million.
4. SoundCloud
Head office: Berlin, Germany About the startup: the service was founded in 2007 by Alexander Lung and Eric Walforss. This is a social platform that allows users to download, share and stream music of all types of audio files. The company, whose website is visited by 175 million monthly users, has raised more than $ 100 million in venture capital.
5. Mixcloud
Head office: London, UK About the startup: this project positions itself as a “shelter for podcasts, on-demand radio shows and DJ mixes”. The service, which has about 10 million users per month, recently presented plans to organize a paid subscription in an attempt to monetize its services. These guys do not attract external funding, which is quite unusual for the music industry.
6. Stereomood
Head Office: Rome, Italy About the startup: founded in 2008 by Giovanni Ferron, Daniel Novaga, Maurizio Pratichi and Eleanor Viviani, Stereomood is not just a free music streaming service, but also a tool for creating playlists “on occasion” or “by mood” . In 2012, the project announced its participation in the seed investment round, the details of which were not disclosed.
7. Playlists.net
Head Office: Tyne and Wear, UK About the startup: Playlists.net used to be called ShareMyPlaylists.com. This is a Spotify community that offers its users “music curation” features. Launched in 2009, the project attracted 1 million users and £ 600,000 in funding. A couple of months ago, there were rumors that Playlists.net was in the process of absorption, but this information has not yet been confirmed.
8. Songkick
Head office: London, UK About the startup: founded in 2007 by Ian Hogarth, Pete Smith and Michelle U. This is a service that helps users find and track concert information. According to the press, the service is visited by 10 million “unique fans” every month, and its funding is approximately $ 16.6 million.
9. Soundrop
Head office: Oslo, Norway About the startup: founded in 2011 and offers users an application for the “social” search of music, as well as marketing tools to popularize music for artists and labels. To date, the startup has received approximately $ 6.4 million in investment and is proud of its offices in Oslo, New York, Los Angeles and London.
10. Hello Stage
Head office: Vienna, Austria About the startup: founded by Bernard Kerres (former art and executive director of one of Vienna's largest concert halls - Wiener Konzerthaus) and was launched in 2013. This is an online community whose goal is to bring together classical music performers on the one hand and managers and promoters on the other.
11. This Is My Jam
Head office: London, UK About the startup: founded by Hannah Donovan and Matthew Ogle, launched in 2012. This service allows users to share their favorite songs and thus learn about new tracks and artists. The startup recently redesigned and announced the appearance of 500,000 song pages on the site.
12. Sofar Sounds
Head office: London, UK About the startup: founded in 2011 in a tiny London apartment. Sofar Sounds is a music search community that hosts its own small live concerts in unique venues around the world. This project was supported by well-known investors, among them - Peter Reed, Max Niederhofer and Stefan Glanzer.
13. Sidestage
Head office: Berlin, Germany About the startup: launched in July 2014. Sidestage is a music service reservation platform similar to the American startup Gigit , now available in Berlin and London. The startup was founded by Schuyler Deerman, who had previously created another project - the Moped messaging application - which was subsequently acquired by the friendly Berlin-based startup 6Wunderkinder.
14. Soundwave
Head Office: Dublin, Ireland About the startup: founded by Brendan O'Driscoll, Aidan Sliny and Craig Watson in 2012. Soundwave is a mobile application that allows you to instantly share the tracks you listen to with friends, and works on various platforms. One of the first to rate the app was rumored to be Steve Wozniak.
15. 3plet
Head Office: Tallinn, Estonia About the startup: although many now choose streaming music services rather than buying albums, 3plet still believes that music lovers will continue to buy tracks from their favorite artists. The startup, founded by Vlad Davydov and Valery Mifodovsky in 2012, offers a platform that allows artists to release albums in the form of interactive mobile applications.
Here are a few more music startups that have been added to our list at the suggestion of Tech.eu readers:
- Epidemic Sound (Stockholm, Sweden) - was founded in 2009. This startup owns a music library and offers to use it as a subscription to production companies, podcasts, professional music editors and composers.
- Baboom (Porto, Portugal) - a mini-release of this service in January 2014 was conducted by Kim Dotcom. The service itself is a hybrid of iTunes and Spotify, which allows artists to sell music directly to their listeners.
- Shuffler.fm (Amsterdam, Netherlands) - the service was founded in 2010. This is an Internet radio project based on information from popular music blogs.
- BeatSwitch (Antwerp, Belgium) is a cloud-based platform designed to help musicians, agencies for booking artists and festival organizers to work together more effectively.
- 22tracks (Amsterdam, Netherlands) - was founded in 2009. This service is a platform for searching for new tracks, which offers users playlists created with the participation of “top DJs” from different European capitals.
- Music Gateway (London, UK) - this project is a platform and tools aimed at connecting music industry professionals with each other to create new projects.
- Red Karaoke (Madrid, Spain) is an online community for singing enthusiasts and a digital karaoke service that streams music in nine languages.
- Aurovine (UK) is a site that allows artists to sell music directly to their fans and set their own prices for their works.
