Photo Credit – Splice
Splice, a New York-based music creation service, announced it raised $57.5 million in Series C funding. With this funding round, Splice will continue to help musicians create and earn revenue.
This round of funding was led by existing investors Union Square Ventures and True Ventures. DFJ Growth, Flybridge, and Lerer Hippeau. Liontree, Founders Circle Capital, and Matt Pincus (Songz Publishing founder) are also joining the round. Splice plans to use the funding to improve upon its existing marketplaces and workflow tools along with launching new products.
In the same announcement, Splice also unveiled that it has paid $15 million in royalties to music creators who distribute their songs through the company’s artist-to-artist sample service called Splice Sounds. The subscription-based sample library is used by top 40 hitmakers, Grammy Award winners, and indie producers. Plus it gives creators access to a library of more than 3 million sounds.
Splice Sounds is one out of several Splice products that accelerate creativity including the Rent-to-Own payment model that makes professional creative tools accessible for small monthly payments and Splice Studio — which is a free back-up and collaboration product that allows musicians to store, save, and share music project files in the cloud.
“Splice is truly becoming a platform for the millions of musicians we dreamed of when we first started building it,” said Splice co-founder and CEO Steve Martocci. “We know and trust these investors — they share both our commitment to building a product and company that is good for musicians and share our big vision in continuing to transform the way musicians create, connect, collaborate, and make money. This funding will help bring that vision into reality.”
This past year, Splice partnered with a number of major artists including boi-1da — who is known for winning a Grammy for Drake’s “God’s Plan” — and SOPHIE (nominated for a Best Dance/Electronic album Grammy).
Splice also recently released a professional Digital Audio Workstation on Rent-to-Own — which makes offers high-end recording software for musicians to record sounds at a price of $16.99 per month. The company also recently announced a partnership with Akai Professional to help musicians accelerate creative hardware and content.
“We’ve built an incredible portfolio of marketplaces and products that serve all people who make music – from Grammy award winners to kids in their bedrooms. This investment allows us to evolve those products and take several huge leaps toward a creatively and financially healthier music culture. Our focus on supporting musicians will not waver. And we have some big, meaningful surprises in store for them,” said Splice’s Chief Product Officer Ryan Walsh.
Walsh joined Splice in June and he previously directed product strategy, development, and marketing of media at Apple where he served as a principal of Apple Music. He arrived at Apple after the Cupertino giant acquired Beats Music where he served as a VP of product.
Some of the additional talent that Splice recently hired includes CFO Chris Acquaviva (former Marvel Entertainment CFO) and chief people officer Kavita Vora (former chief people officer at MakerBot). Splice’s other executives include chief business officer Jonathan Lee, and CTO Matt Aimonetti.
“It’s an exciting time to be a musician, in no small part because of what Splice is doing to catalyze creativity through new technology and new business models,” added Union Square Ventures managing partner Andy Weissman. “We’ve believed in Splice since day one and are doubling down five years after our first investment to bring the vision to life.”
