SellerForce® presents a SaaS-based social media platform that has become a thriving base for independent artists and singers eager to bring their music directly to fans and followers. That company has accomplished that by creating a platform where artists can upload and market their music directly to listeners while setting their own custom pricing and offering subscription plans. Sales of their tracks can be made directly on their website. Many of the artists have done quite well on these single-track sales.
The company has attracted thousands of people who have signed up for monthly subscriptions while also paying fees to onboard new tracks. Today the company is signing up 6 new artists a day, and the increased exposure those musicians get is bringing the company a more diverse customer base, with listeners, music producers and even music studio sound engineers now signing up for subscriptions.
This company is riding a rapidly growing trend where artists and authors can make money online and bypass traditional recording studios or publishing houses. Today there are a growing number of distribution platforms such as streaming services and digital stores where they can submit music to retailers such as Spotify, Apple, or Amazon.
This service, though, has given artists the freedom to connect directly with their fans, and get sales on their own. The current owner is now focusing on using sophisticated Artificial Intelligence tools to create additional ways for the business to generate revenue, and to make it even more appealing to its customer base.
The seller is now seeking out a strategic buyer or investor, preferably one now operating in the music industry, to help the platform achieve its full growth potential. The seller is hoping the right investor can bring not just capital to this business but also insights and feedback on where the online music streaming niche is going.
As Independent Music becomes a stronger DTC niche, this company is in an exceptionally strong position to grow rapidly as online trends shift in its favor. Consumers have become more comfortable than ever purchasing independent music online, including individual tracks rather than entire albums. The company has also successfully demonstrated that its profits can rise thanks to the popularity of each new artist they sign up. The company’s social-media model allows for the right balance of two-way communication between Consumer-to-Artist and Consumer-to-
Consumers, so listeners can also share music with one another.
A buyer gets the advantage of a platform that has successfully connected with its customer base in a short amount of time, has stable recurring subscription revenue, and the ability to grow into a much larger operation.
This business represents a clear opportunity for a U.S. Buyer to acquire this company and then scale it quickly. Opportunities include launching an app version of the platform and enabling marketers to run ads on the site, targeting and onboarding artists who have a larger number of followers, and inviting music labels to manage multiple artists on their platform.
Business Broker Takeaway
Our analysis of this business shows that the value propositions present are strong for a first-time buyer looking to get into the online space. We are excited about this business for 3 important reasons:
1. Unique Features.
This SaaS platform has distinguished itself by becoming a popular Social Media platform for music, one that lets listeners engage more with not only the songs they discover but the artists as well. The platform also provides artists with a dedicated profile page that enables them to customize it to their satisfaction and gives each artist and musician the means of setting their own pricing while enabling listeners to subscribe to their page. This has been a big hit with artists looking for a platform that gives them smarter wants to connect and communicate with listeners. The platform gives the artists something else: detailed insights, based on the data they collect, to help them understand how they get discovered by listeners and what they can do to improve the quality of their tracks. That includes AI recommendations that help the artist match listener demands, for both first-time listeners and active subscribers.
2. Development Support.
In addition to selling the platform, the company is providing long-term development support to the new owner, ensuring the platform’s continued success. That includes one of the company’s core strengths which is the significant data they collect on each artist and transaction. This SaaS system now has the infrastructure to collect 20 different data points on each person who gets onboarded, but the company is in the process of expanding that to collect far more data, which will be used to create data models based on the different consumer segments their artists attract. This is one of numerous AI projects the company is now focused on to grow its revenue streams, and the brand’s existing team of 15 engineers is available to continue these projects under the new owner.
3. Scaling Innovations.
The company’s new projects include the development of a music-first mobile app, which will make available a library of the tracks that have been built up from their collection of artists. The company envisions this as a new TikTok for music, and it would provide opportunities for other companies to advertise on the site, generating new revenue. The brand also wants to invite popular music labels to create a “Label Account” where they could manage multiple artists on a single platform. This is a feature that’s still under development, although the concept has already received encouragement from numerous music labels interested in taking advantage of it
The Company
The platform uses Google Cloud for its core infrastructure and Firebase software for data management. The company’s data indicates that 6.5% of their follower base is more likely to purchase an artist’s tracks from this platform than other sources, which gives the brand a 20% commission on the sale.
The company also charges $50 a month in subscription fees for independent artists, which is about 60% of the company’s total revenue, and $99 a month for subscriptions by music labels. There is also a flat fee for uploading each artist’s tracks.
The current owner is now focused on developing new features and on maintaining the cloud infrastructure, and because the project is very tech-savvy, the sale will include continued development support from their engineering team.
Contact SellerForce today to learn more about this rare investment opportunity.
Listing ID: SF421
