Smule Raises $54M At $604M Valuation, As More Musicians Use Platform To Connect With Fans

Social music startup Smule has raised $54 million in a strategic financing round led by Tencent. The funds will be used to expand the service, which has 54 million monthly active users creating over 20 million songs daily, into Asia. ____________________________________ Giant Chinese investor Tencent has led a $54 million…

Facebook Reports Earnings, 1.94 Billion Monthly Users (25% Of All People On The Planet)

Facebook’s growth has to slow sometime, but not just yet. Yesterday, Facebook reported Q1 earnings of $8 billion, up 49% over the same period in 2016. Net profits were just over $3 billion, up 76% percent over Q1 last year. But the big story is Facebook’s continued user growth as…

24 Best Music Tech Conferences: FREE Ebook from PR Firm Rock Paper Scissors

Music Tech Conferences: A Guide for Startups is available for free. This 31-page guide will help anyone – from startups to seasoned veterans – navigate the many music and tech industry conferences. _____________________________________ Music Tech Conferences: A Guide for Startups includes informative articles that provide help in evaluating how these…

Know-Your-Audience Mobility Patent For Concerts For Sale

IPinvestments Group is selling an interesting portfolio of music technology related patents, including one aimed at understanding real-time audience behavior and sentiment via mobile activity during a concert. As I understand it, the patent enables the collection of quantitative and qualitative data from mobile devices to understand audience interaction before,…

Pandora Is Now Talking To Private Equity Firms In Search Of Cash

Earlier this week, we learned that Pandora had asked the major labels for cash or better royalty rates. After receiving what is reported to be a tepid response from UMG, WMG and Sony, the music streamer is now talking to private equity firms in search of cash. ________________________________ Pandora is…

TakeLessons Acquires Competitor Chromatik

TakeLessons has acquired Chromatik, a digital sheet music and music education platform. Details of the deal were not announced, but Chromatik had raised $7.7 million from Rustic Canyon Partners, Learn Capital, Plus Capital and others. Chromatik was founded in 2010 and powers millions of musicians playing, learning and sharing music….