Spinnin’ Records founder Eelko van Kooten launches DIY distribution and collaboration platform Ledo

Netherlands-based music industry veterans Sarah Hildering and Eelko van Kooten (Spinnin’ Records founder) have launched a new music company called Ledo.

The launch of the company marks van Kooten’s return to the music business following the sale of Spinnin’ Records (founded in 1999 with current CEO Roger de Graaf ) to Warner Music Group in a deal worth over $100 million in 2017.

Ledo is a social influence-focused music collaboration and distribution platform for indie artists that promises to “allow artists and content creators to easily market and monetise their music and content through collaborative partnerships on social media”.

According to the company’s FAQs, Ledo offers free distribution to all “leading DSPs and social media platforms” with team access to every release.

Ledo also offers a free library of rights cleared music to use in social content and “all types of branded or non-branded content”.

In addition, the platform offers what it describes a “collab-house”, which will allow creators to collaborate with other LEDO users “and tap into each others’ fanbases to increase [their] reach and following”.

Signing up to Ledo and accessing the Free Music Library is free for content creators and brands.

At launch, the company is offering free distribution with artists allowed to keep 100% of their royalties.

From September 1, 2021 onwards, Ledo users can choose to either keep 100% of their royalties but pay €5 per track uploaded, or distribute their music for free, but share 5% of their streaming income with Ledo.

In an official release announcing the new company, Ledo claims that it will be “removing the barriers for music makers and content creators in order to make great partnerships possible”.

The platform’s free music library is described as “a disruptive counter movement to the traditional sync model which is slow, un-transparent, and expensive”.

Other key features included in Ledo’s suite of tools for DIY artists include an analytics dashboard displaying streaming platforms and social media platforms in one overview, automatic payment splitting to all royalty sharing members and a financial dashboard.

“I am well aware of the pain points that music makers experience with regards to managing their music, their royalty income and successfully promoting their music. I wanted to build something that would offer a solution to today’s independent artist.”

Eelko van Kooten, LEDO

“I am well aware of the pain points that music makers experience with regards to managing their music, their royalty income and successfully promoting their music”, said Eelko van Kooten, co-founder Ledo.

“I wanted to build something that would offer a solution to today’s independent artist. To give back the creative control to those who make the music and connect the worlds of music makers and content creators LEDO allows both worlds to collaborate but also become more successful together than they would individually.

“I’m extremely excited for the launch and contributing to the success of both those worlds in the age of social media dominance”.

“The era of social media has empowered creators to connect more directly, and has offered them transparency on how to promote themselves.”

Sarah Hildering, LEDO

Sarah Hildering, co-founder, Ledo added: “The era of social media has empowered creators to connect more directly, and has offered them transparency on how to promote themselves.

“Artists and influencers now have access to data and can make more impact compared to the traditional marketing model of music. We built a platform based on the principle of creative freedom and ownership. Today, almost a third of all music is already being self-released by artists in this 12 billion dollar streaming economy.

“Whereas, 150 million content creators are not properly monetising their socials of which music is the beating heart. LEDO allows both artists and influencers to collaborate directly so that independent music can be promoted and monetised effectively on social media by the creators themselves.

“Ledo is the result of a long road learning from, and working with independent talent: that creativity thrives when set free.”Music Business Worldwide