Photo Credit: Breakr
Music startup Breakr raises another $1.9 million led by Slow Ventures, as creator payouts top $3.5 million over the last two years.
Startup platform Breakr, which connects record labels, artists, and brands with social media influencers to run extensive campaigns, has raised another $1.9 million in an extension led by Slow Ventures. In the past two years, Breakr has onboarded over 30,000 influencers and paid out more than $3.5 million in creator transactions. The latest funding will be used to fuel hiring and product development.
To date, Breakr has raised $8.7 million from an impressive array of investors, including Marc Benioff, former TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer, RGA Ventures, Charles Hudson’s Precursor Ventures, Complex founder Rich Antoniello, Plexo Capital’s Lo Toney, WndrCo’s Anthony Selah, and Quiet Capital.
Perhaps more impressive is the selection of musicians who have worked with Breakr over the last two years: Megan Thee Stallion, Future, Rick Ross, Gunna, JID, Sleepy Hallow, Ozzy Osbourne, Blackpink, Young Thug, PinkPantheress, Armani White, Brent Faiyaz, Tobe Nwigwe, Charlieonnafriday, and investor Nas.
“Breakr wants to be the Google Ad Words, powered by creators,” Anthony Brown, Breakr co-founder, told TechCrunch. “We believe that with underlying audience data, mass liquidity, and intelligence capabilities, it should be as easy to come into Breakr and spend $15,000 as it is to set it and forget it on Google.”
Recently, Breakr left closed beta as a self-service software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, underpinned by a digital wallet that acts as an escrow account. Money can be paid in or taken out of the wallet for services being rendered.
“This transition to a SaaS model aligns with our goal to streamline and democratize the process of influencer marketing, making it more accessible and efficient for a wider range of users in the music industry and beyond,” says co-founder Ameer Brown.
Creators can submit their profiles to the profiles to be considered for campaigns, while artists or their labels submit music to be used in a particular campaign. While musicians might pay to have their music used, they will also receive a cut of the revenues made by the campaigns using their work.
Meanwhile, on the marketing side, brands look for influencers to run promotions, with 40 data points to access on each influencer: language, audio location, interests, and many more. Brands can look at influencers’ past content and engagement rates, and run diagnostics to vet for brand safety (if an influencer engages in fake followers or other baited practices, and whether that will be a factor for the brand in question.)
“The creator economy, especially in music, is rapidly evolving with a shift towards direct, curated, and scalable relationships between digital marketers and creators,” said Anthony Brown. “Traditional management tools are becoming obsolete, paving the way for more efficient, relationship-focused technologies. These include platforms that allow easy distribution of personalized content and offers to creators, moving away from high-cost, short-term campaigns.”
Breakr hopes to branch out into other fields like television and film, while music marketing remains its primary niche.
