Update 3; July 29th, 6:15 pm PT. Early this morning, we reported that former Coca-Cola executive Judith Snyder was a co-founder of Music Dealers. Snyder immediately contacted us, informing DMN that she was not a co-founder and had no relation to Music Dealers outside of managing a relationship with Coca-Cola (where she was an executive). Separately, Snyder does appear to be a co-founder with Music Dealers founder Eric Sheinkop in a company called desirelist, based on multiple, published sources (including a tweet by Sheinkop).
Sync music licensing company Music Dealers has apparently and very suddenly decided to close their doors. The news hasn’t been very well-received by artists who depended on the company as a source of income, with the decision reportedly leaving many independent artists without pay.
A spokeswoman for the company released a statement, saying:
“It is with a heavy heart that Music Dealers has made the difficult decision to discontinue operations. We are proud of all we achieved in our eight years in business and disappointed to be in this position. We remain hopeful and focused on finding a partner who will help revive Music Dealers and once again realize its potential.”
Music Dealers was founded in 2008 with only one office in Chicago by Eric Sheinkop, and quickly expanded with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and London. The idea behind the company was to be a global music technology solution that would bridge the gap between top brands and independent and emerging artists, combining “the world’s largest, hand-selected catalog of pre-cleared, independent music with an amazing team of music and technology professionals to offer an unprecedented list of music-related services.” Big name brands would be able to license and distribute digital music to advertising, TV, gaming, and film industries.
Speaking on this sudden news, producer and manager Tyler Neil Johnson said:
“After countless emails and failed promises Music Dealers failed to pay out $2600 to one of my artists. I went to email again…they bounced back… did a quick google search to find out they went bankrupt and their Facebook and Twitter had been deleted. Its [sic] just sad because a lot of artists like my client were never given any warning about this and will probably never see that money.”
Other artists have shared Johnson’s complaints, with some not being surprised of the news. Seemingly giving an insight as to why the company may have suddenly closed their doors, a user named Spiderman on the forums for GearsSlutz wrote, “[Music Dealers] had some big accounts/placements over the years, but they also seemed to be living larger than their portfolio (nice downtown Chicago offices, a dozen full-time employees, etc).”
In 2011, Music Dealers had formalized a partnership with The Coca-Cola Company and had successfully raised $9.25 million in funding between 2010 and 2013. Sheinkop has reportedly moved on to focus on new startup, desirelist.com along with former Coca-Cola PR executive Judith Snyder.
In Jan 2013, they received $1.42m in a series B funding based on a valuation of $22.5m. That’s just plain crazy. Seems like they drank too much of their own kool-aid.
The timing is interesting because this came in today from streaming business
Guvera…
Sadly, this is a goodbye…
Born and launched into Australia in 2008, we have had the best time bringing all the latest tunes to the ears of our listeners here. Unfortunately, and with a heavy heart, the time has come to pull back from our operations in the country.
After several changes in our product and an evaluation of our business, we have decided that in order to achieve sustainable and long-term goals, we will focus our efforts in key emerging countries where we feel we can return the greatest value to our stakeholders.
As a result, Guvera will no longer stream music in Australia from today. Bringing free music to you guys and making sure the artists we all love are fairly compensated for their work has been, and always will be, the soul of Guvera. So while we won’t be streaming in Australia any more, we will be continuing this journey in other parts of the world. If your travels take you abroad, you’ll be able re-register to use Guvera in India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
We want to answer any and all of the questions you may have about this change of direction, so if you have a question, please visit http://www.guvera.com.
Guvera couldn’t have got to where we are today without all of you, so we thank you sincerely for the love and support that you’ve shown us over the past eight years.
The Guvera team