[UPDATED] Dart Music promised to fix music’s metadata problem; first with classical music and then all genres. But after raising $1.5 million, the promising startup has filed for bankruptcy.
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Dart Music has filed for bankruptcy in its home state of Tennessee. In a press release, the company said it will continue to operate during Chapter 11. But the bankruptcy filing listed debts totalling $2.57 million versus assets of between $50,0000 and $100,000.
Included in the debts listed is $33,233 due artists and $600,000 each to Rob Harig and Stacy Stinson, principles in Lebanon, TN based business consultancy St. John & Company.
Founded by former Apple and Naxos technologist Chris McMurtry, Dart Music was one of the first startups to graduate from the Nashville Entrepreneur Center’s Project Music incubator, where it received seed funding in 2015. Later that year, the company raised $1.5 million in venture capital.
Joe Galante, often called the godfather of the Nashville music industry, mentored McMurtry at Project Music; and would later serve on Dart’s board, as well as help raise capital.
Fixing music’s metadata problem was Dart’s primary mission. It began as a digital distributor for classical music, a genre known for multiple versions of the same work, and thus often a metadata nightmare. Late last year, the company pivoted, promising to solve the metadata issue for all genres. In October, it launched DartCleanup in beta and secured contracts with Naxos, CD Baby, Ingram Content Group and others.