Soundtrack Your Brand, a company which aims to kill bad background music has today added a whopping $22 million in fresh capital to its coffers. This Series C investment was led by Nordic VC fund Industrifonden and the U.K.’s Balderton Capital. There is no info on the share each contributed.
In addition, this fundraising round also saw participation from existing investors including Telia Company, Northzone, Creandum, HMP, industry veteran Jörg Mohaupt and Spotify’s COO Stefan Blom. Previously, the company had raised nearly $11 billion in their Series B funding round, excluding the $3 million before that. Now, the total capital raised by SYB amounts to ~35.9 million.
The company is planning to use the said funds to further cement their position in the music streaming ecosystem, which is currently dominated by Spotify (who is also a backer of this startup). Soundtrack Your Brand is also looking to employ a massive chunk of these funds for expanding its international footprint. Also, this round brings Balderton Capital’s general partner Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen and Industrifonden investment manager and music entrepreneur Johan Englund on as Board of Directors.
Commenting on their investment, Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen says,
I’ve witnessed disruption first hand. Dropbox made storage cool and achieved a shift from a consumer to a business proposition. Uber changed the way we think of transportation. Soundtrack Your Brand will do the same thing to background music.
Björn Bergström, Investment Manager and lead for Industrifonden’s investment also chimes in and says,
Soundtrack Your Brand has a massive opportunity to fully digitalise the background music industry. Leading that shift creates endless possibilities in terms of both insight and reach.
Soundtrack Your Brand, which is a rather lengthy name to pronounce, so we might refer to it as SYB from time-to-time. The company was founded by Ola Sars, co-founder of Beats Music (acquired by Apple) and Andreas Liffgarden, former Spotify executive in 2013.
SYB was launched with the aim to make searching for background music, which has become an important resource in today’s age, easier. The said duo built the industry’s first background music streaming platform, which runs on a scientifically proven curation model. It combines data analysis with their expertise in delivering fitting content for brands.
Further, since SYB is providing background music, every track present on the platform is licensed for use in public and commercial environments. It works on a model which is unlike any other music streaming platform on the interwebs.
Further, speaking on the same, Soundtrack Your Brand’s executive chairman and co-founder Andreas Liffgarden says,
Background music today is sold as a utility, and there’s rarely much thought going into what music brands are playing and why. Today’s background music sucks for brands and consumers alike, and it’s hurting the music industry at large. As lovers of music and technology, we’re completely overhauling this industry, to once and for all kill bad background music.
Soundtrack Your Brand is currently offering two core products, Spotify Business (available in Nordic countries Sweden, Norway, and Finland) and Soundtrack Business (available everywhere else). This means you can build and manage a centralized playlist, which can then be streamed across individual stores remotely. So, no one at the coffee store can mess up and play something outrageously loud.
The company is currently present in over 100 countries across the globe, a step which was initiated in 2016. It is currently witnessing a 400 percent growth in their revenue and user base numbers, which are on track for branding it the fastest growing company in global background music market. It’s key customers include McDonald’s, TAG Heuer and Toni & Guy.
