Music licensing and distribution platform Songtradr has acquired MassiveMusic, a creative music agency with offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and New York.
Santa Monica-headquartered Songtradr announced the MassiveMusic buyout – the latest in a series of high-profile purchases that it’s made during 2021’s opening five or so months – today, via a formal release that was shared with Digital Music News. Founded back in 2000, MassiveMusic has worked on adverts and marketing campaigns for prominent brands including McDonald’s, Kia, Oreo, and Bacardi, its website shows.
Expanding upon the latter point, Songtradr notes in the release that music-industry revenues – and “the number of places where a brand’s sound is experienced” – appear poised to continue growing.
Consequently, “marketers more than ever have to cut through and create maximum impact, driving an urgency to optimize the power of music” – and doing so will prove easier with the combination of MassiveMusic’s “unrivalled music for brands footprint” and “Songtradr’s technologies and data-informed B2B music products,” according to the text.
From there, the document reiterates that MassiveMusic – which boasts a roughly 85-person team and has worked with Apple, Nike, Heineken, and others – this year launched MassiveBASS, “the world’s first data-driven sonic branding tool.”
And while the release doesn’t disclose the transaction’s financial specifics, sources with knowledge of the matter have indicated that the deal represents Songtradr’s largest buyout to date. Moving forward, MassiveMusic will lead Songtradr’s “B2B Music Services Division.”
Addressing his company’s acquisition of MassiveMusic in a statement, Songtradr CEO Paul Wiltshire said: “MassiveMusic has built a standout reputation for bold, brilliant, creative music solutions for brands over the last 20+ years. The complexities of the B2B music industry have made it challenging to fully adopt and leverage technology, limiting it from experiencing the same growth as the consumer music industry.
“Bringing our companies and competencies together creates the scale and trust to enable a true transformation of the B2B music industry and unlock significant growth potential,” finished Wiltshire, whose business completed a $30 million Series C last August.
Since this multimillion-dollar funding round, Songtradr has made several strategic plays, beginning with a $1 million investment in Jaxsta (as well as a five-year exclusive contract) in September of 2020. November saw Songtradr add UK-based sync licensing company Cuesongs to its holdings, and March of 2021 brought with it the acquisition of music and sound-design business Song Zu.
Finally, Songtradr in April bought livestream-music provider Pretzel and, one week thereafter, purchased visual-media music database Tunefind.