Gimme Radio shuts down after 6 years, unable to raise needed financing

Social audio platform Gimme Radio will shut down on April 29th after failing “to raise the financing needed to support the streaming services and grow Gimme to reach all music fans across all genres.”

Gimme Radio provided a platform for musicians to create engaging listening experiences for fans while receiving compensation through digital and physical subscriptions, virtual tips, e-commerce, and ticket sales.

Gimme had raised a total of $7 million, including $3 million in 2022 from Wayra X, Telefónica’s investment fund, and successfully launched streaming radio apps in two genres – Metal and Country.

Tough times in music tech

Expect more music and music tech startups still in the growth phase to struggle in the coming months as a shaky economy makes landing investments much harder and financing more expensive.,

“Even though the music fans, artists, and much of the music industry love Gimme, and even though we proved that engaged communities could generate real money at a higher average revenue per user than other music platforms,” wrote Gimme Radio founder Tyler Lenane, “we, unfortunately, find ourselves in an economic climate where we have been unable to raise the financing needed to support the streaming services and grow Gimme to reach all music fans across all genres.”

Lenane generously shared lessons learned particularly about building fan communities that should be of value to almost anyone in the music space in a lengthy blog post here.

“The creator economy only serves the top two percent of artists,” he wrote. “What about the rest of them? And I’m not talking about the long tail, I’m talking about the mid-tier or the “middle class” of artists that make up the majority.”

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.