A good sync placement can become iconic. “Don’t Stop Believin’” is forever linked to The Sopranos. Dirty Vegas’ “Days Go By” blew up after it was featured in a Mitsubishi commercial.
And now, LA-based Songtradr, founded in 2014, is positioning itself as one of the biggest B2B music marketplaces. It licenses tracks from its library of 600k+ artists and owners to media and brands, including Netflix, Volkswagen, and Google.
The startup announced a $50m funding round…
… bringing its value to $300m+. The new funding will go toward new staff and products, per TechCrunch. It will also go toward more M&As, of which there have been many in 2021:
- MassiveMusic, a creative music agency that helps brands figure out their sound
- Cuesongs, a UK-based music licensing company
- Washington-based Pretzel, a licensing company for livestreamers
- Tunefind, a database for finding songs used in movies, TV, and games
How it works: artists sign up for an account…
… and upload their music, which brands can pick and choose from.
Musician Chasing Jonah told The Los Angeles Times she licensed a song to the show Lucifer for $3k (newer artists typically make $0-$5k for TV syncs). After that, she found it easier to book gigs and find producers.
On the other side, Songtradr offers help finding the right song, but anyone can use its platform to browse tracks in a variety of categories.
Which is kinda fun — even if you’re not a music supervisor.
