PledgeMusic to acquire US–based NoiseTrade and Set.fm

Image:The Libertines worked with Pledge Music to make pre-orders of first album in 11 years, Anthems For Doomed Youth, available to fans

PRESS RELEASE:

PledgeMusic, the leading global next generation direct-to-fan e-commerce platform, announced today that it will acquire NoiseTrade and Set.fm. The newly integrated company will have a user-base of more than 3 million highly active music superfans directly engaging with the artists they love. The ecosystem’s technologies currently provide over 50,000 artists and musicians with inventive ways to connect with those fans, creating value that adds newfound revenue opportunities throughout the music production and promotion lifecycle of their endeavors. With these acquisitions, PledgeMusic’s model of enabling individual fans to directly support artists is poised for exponential growth across all levels of the creative community and consumer landscape.

“In bringing our three companies together under a single roof we are building a unique platform that adaptively supports the full lifecycle of recordings, tours and the constantly-changing forms of artistic output,” stated PledgeMusic Founder and CEO Benji Rogers.“It is our shared belief that PledgeMusic now offers musicians at all stages of their careers the most robust home to bring their visions to life and reach their commercial objectives. Revaluing music for fans equals revenue for artists and the ecosystem we’ve created makes me more optimistic than ever about the future business of making music.”

London-based PledgeMusic, established in 2009, features its first-of-kind pre-selling, marketing and distribution of recordings, alongside premier exclusives and engaging experiences for superfans directly from the artist. With offices in New York, London andBoston, PledgeMusic will expand its footprint with the addition of Nashville–based NoiseTrade and Austin-based Set.fm. PledgeMusic was recently named one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Music by Fast Company. Artists using the platform include Rob Zombie, KT Tunstall, BB King, Interpol, Lindsey Stirling, The Libertines, Erasure, Rufus Wainwright, The Flaming Lips, Cheap Trick, 311,Def Leppard, and Gary Numan.

NoiseTrade’s mission of helping artists and labels connect with fans through the exchange of free music for data and Set.fm’stechnology platform allowing musicians to capture and instantly sell live performance recordings will greatly enhance PledgeMusic’s offerings to its ever-expanding international community.

“The PledgeMusic,Set.fm, and NoiseTrade platforms are cut from the same cloth,” said NoiseTrade founder and president Derek Webb. “We are all founded and run by artists and exist to empower musicians andfacilitate meaningful connections between creators and their tribes. Aligning our massive combined reach around one vision representsthe start of something unprecedented. The fuse has been lit on the reconstruction of the music business.”

“We’re thrilled to be uniting our market-leading live-event recording software and sales platform with PledgeMusic and NoiseTrade,” said Set.fm CEO Matt Peterson. “The combined network-effect of the three services will uniquely empower artists to be successful at all stages of their creative process, while rewarding and engaging fans with the products and experiences they want most from the performers they love.”

The acquisitions and growth trajectory further underscore major PledgeMusic investors Magna Entertainment and their co-investor and advisor Sword Rowe & Company’s growing commitment to music-focused properties and distribution vehicles. Both artist- founded and led firms are deeply passionate about building innovative businesses that support the creative community in reaching their commercial objectives, while remaining true to their artistic visions.