Universal Music Group has announced that it has bought an equity stake in Loud.com, which also owns Battlerap.com. Loud.com is a place for upcoming hip-hop artists, freestylers, and producers to upload their samples and they can potentially win prizes such as opening for the Wu-Tang Clan in Hawaii.
“Universal’s strategy is to become actively involved in all areas of media where our artists and our music are present,” said UMG Vice Chairman and CFO Nick Henny. “Loud.com has created an incredibly vibrant and growing online hip-hop community that features not only compelling user-generated content, but also the means for users to create their own music and compete for a record deal. Loud.com is quickly emerging as one of the leading new online ventures that successfully reaches the new generation of international and multicultural youth.”
Loud.com also sells audio files of hip-hop beats for 99 cents. And users can create blogs within the site and can search for profiles and add friends.
“We are delighted that UMG is joining the Loud.com family,” added the co-founder/CEO of Loud.com, Joseph Safina. “When Steve Rifkind and I started Loud.com, our hope was to create a virtual home for hip-hop fans around the world. To our delight, it has quickly evolved into an online community, competition, A&R site and marketing company all rolled into one. With UMG now on board, we’ll be able to offer even more compelling services to our members.”
The amount UMG invested in Loud.com was undisclosed.
