YouTube has made a very significant acquisition: direct-to-fan online commerce service BandPage.
Last year, BandPage claimed that it was sending a million fans a month back to artists’ official online stores.
The firm defines itself as ‘the central profile that musicians can use to engage and sell to their fans on the largest music services in the world’.
BandPage previously partnered with Spotify in addition to Rhapsody, Rdio, VEVO, Shazam, Lyricfind and others – but you’d have to guess it’s about to go exclusive to some degree with YouTube, the world’s biggest streaming music service.
BandPage has just announced its acquisition to customers and partners on its official blog.
The company said that the YouTube buyout “dramatically accelerates our shared goal of helping musicians everywhere thrive”.
“We are extremely excited about this because we believe YouTube truly shares our commitment to musicians.”
BandPage statement
It adds:
BandPage is dedicated to helping musicians build their careers by growing their fan bases and increasing their revenue on the largest digital music services in the world. By joining forces with the team at YouTube, we can help artists reach their fans in more powerful ways than ever before.
We are extremely excited about this because we believe YouTube truly shares our commitment to musicians. YouTube already offers a global distribution platform for any artist to be discovered and some of the best self-publishing tools for musicians and other creators.
The team has a lot of things planned to help musicians succeed on the platform, and more broadly across the BandPage network. There’s still a lot that we can do to help musicians, and we can accomplish so much more together. We can’t wait to get started!
Our collective goal remains the same: to grow an open network of digital music services, develop intelligent new tools for managing/distributing artist content and commerce, and create new revenue opportunities for all musicians, on YouTube and beyond.
Ultimately, this is about our partnership with you, the musician. As always, we’d love to hear from you, so reach out to us at ideas@bandpage.com with your thoughts.
San Francisco-based BandPage was founded by its CEO, J. Sider, in March 2010.
The company raised $18.3 million in funding in 2011, with $2.3 million coming from their Series A which was led by Mohr Davidow Ventures and $16 million coming from their Series B led by GGV Capital, Northgate Capital, and Mohr Davidow VenturesMusic Business Worldwide
