Music Audience Exchange (MAX) Closes $6 Million Funding
Others have worked to bring developing musicians and brands together, but MAX has been able to scale the concept. Behind the startup, which just announced $6 million in new funding, are co-founders Nathan Hanks and a music industry veteran and big thinker familiar to regular Hypebot readers, George Howard.
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Music Audience Exchange (MAX) today announced that it has secured $6 million in a funding. MAX weaves together 2.4 million artists – from mainstream stars to developing talent – across 765 genres and 200 consumer attributes to find brand-artist matches. The platform then distributes brand-infused content to where consumers engage with music.
MAX also raised $3.5 million in seed funding in June 2015. Today's new round was led by MATH Venture Partners and KDWC Ventures. G-Bar Ventures and Gregg Latterman, Founder and CEO of Aware Records, also contributed to the raise.
Dr Pepper and Jack Daniel's were among the first brands using MAX for partnerships with artists including NEEDTOBREATHE, Leela James, Aaron Watson, and 2017 Grammy Nominee La Maquinaria Norteña. MAX also powered 40 campaigns for Ford regional dealer groups in multiple English and Spanish music genres.
MAX was founded by Nathan Hanks, who saw the challenges artists face in promoting their careers while growing up in a family of working musicians. At MAX, Hanks is applying the lessons he learned from 10 years immersed in digital marketing as Cofounder and President of ReachLocal, which he helped grow to 24,000 clients across 15 countries and over $500M in annual revenue. Another cofounder is music industry veteran, George Howard, who is the former President of indie label Rykodisc, a copyright and music licensing expert, and an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music and Brown University.
Joining the MAX Board of Directors are Lon Chow (Partner at KDWC Ventures) and David Carlick (Independent Director and former Chairman of the Board at ReachLocal, Inc.).
