Menlo Park, CA (Top40 Charts/ Root Music) RootMusic, creators of BandPage, the new home for musicians on Facebook, today announced that it has closed a $2.3 million Series A round led by Mohr Davidow. The company will use the financing to grow their team and expand their current product offerings to be the solution for music on Facebook. Larry Marcus, an early investor in both
Pandora and SoundHound, is also an angel investor in RootMusic.
With 12.7 million monthly active users, BandPage is now the No 1 entertainment and music app on Facebook and the 17th largest overall app. BandPage is becoming the answer for music on Facebook. Artists like Rihanna, Katy Perry and Grateful Dead, as well as 60,000 local, regional and national musicians around the world are now using BandPage. It allows them to represent themselves professionally on the largest social network in the world.
From the RootMusic homepage, musicians can add an "I made the move to BandPage on Facebook" banner to any of their other sites, linking fans back to the BandPage. RootMusic recently kicked off a bold new campaign that is sparking musicians to "Make the Move" to Facebook. RootMusic is paving the way for musicians who are frustrated with having to update outdated sites.
"Musicians have realized that all their fans are on Facebook; it's simply where the music community needs to have a strong presence. So we wanted to help find that solution, and we have done so with BandPage, all while getting positive feedback from musicians around the world, local to national acts," said J Sider, CEO of RootMusic. "Avril Lavigne and Lil Wayne's exclusive releases on BandPage is indicative of the change in the way music is shared and consumed on social networks."
Both Lil Wayne and Avril Lavigne spear headed music release campaigns via BandPage on Facebook. On December 14, Lil Wayne released '6 Foot 7 Foot' exclusively on the BandPage one day before it was available for purchase on iTunes. At midnight on January 1, Avril Lavigne offered an exclusive free download of her new single "What the Hell" to her fans on Facebook for 48 hours.
"There are many exciting things happening in the music industry today," said David Feinleib, Mohr Davidow General Partner and RootMusic board member. "RootMusic is at the forefront of music technology. We look forward to a long partnership with the company and are enthusiastic about how its new technologies will improve the way musicians do business online."
