Smule has announced that they’ve raised $38 million in equity and debt funding. The round was led by Adam Street Partners. Previous investors who also participated in the round include Bessemer Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and City National who provided the debt financing.
Dave Welsh, a Partner at Adams Street, is joining Smule’s board.
The company will use the money for marketing, product development, and international expansion.
Smule’s suite of apps includes Sing! Karaoke, Magic Piano, Songify, and many others. The company says their users perform 12 million songs a day through their apps. They also say users record 1.5 TB of content every day.
In 2014 Smule’s revenue was $40 million. They have 350,000 subscribers.
Nina Ulloa covers breaking news, tech, and more: @nine_u
Photo by http://401kcalculator.org on Flickr used with the Creative Commons License
Apps do not make music. They make software. At best, they make a software developer’s representation of music.
Apps are a tool. Just like any other tool, they’re as good as the artist using them.
If your experiences haven’t been great, well. I guess that speaks for itself.
Innovative, engaging company. They will likely make a few acquisitions, possibly for a small, but emerging online artist community, to bolster their already robust offering.
Nina how were you able to get Smules 2014 revenue when they’re a private company?
When it serves a strategic purpose, most companies leak information like a sieve. The only information that remains secret is that whose disclosure does not beget a clear benefit.
Also interesting is that we should assume at least 90 percent of Smules revenue comes from subscribers which based on the numbers provided would value each subscriber at around $100. Is that realistic?
Aside from individual crowdfunding is anyone aware of private equity support for companies in the original music creation business? This would most likely operate like an indie record label or recording studio. There must be some; I just don’t know who they are.