Playlist Sharing Startup Cymbal Joins Deadpool
Music tech startup Cymbal is shutting down. Cymbal, which offered an app that enabled users to create playlists and share them, emailed users that it would be stopping service on June 1st.
Founded in 2015, Cymbal took in just $250,000 in seed funding, but it was unclear from launch how the service would monetize.
It's major point of differentiation was as an agnostic service – playlists created on Cymbal could be played on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer or Soundcloud. That was clearly not enough in a landscape of 152 million Spotify accounts or for music fans used to creating playlists within their music streamer of choice.
Cymbals founders did have some advice for other music tech startups:
Yes, music technology is a tough nut to crack. The licensing issues are enough to intimidate developers into giving up. But please don’t be intimidated! Music is too important, and one of the best ways we can support the artists we love is by creating tools that help them succeed. To this day we believe that somewhere in Cymbal’s app is a really beautiful product the world needs. We encourage you to find it.
User will be able to send their Cymbal library to Spotify or Soundcloud prior to June 1.
– H/T to @kbylin
