Your Facebook page is about to be a lot more attractive and effective now that RootMusic has pulled in $2.3 million in Series A funding from Mohr Davidow Ventures, founder J Sider tells Billboard.
The company had previously received an angel investment from Larry Marcus, an early investor in Pandora and SoundHound with Walden Venture Capital. This latest investment came from Mohr Davidow Ventures’ David Feinleib, a general partner who has funded Internet companies such as hi5, Infusionsoft and Ironkey.
The San Francisco-based startup creates tools to build attractive, feature-rich Facebook pages that help artists gain new followers, communicate with fans and share music. The funding will be used to expand RootMusic’s team and product offerings. “We’re shooting to be the overall solution for music on Facebook,” Sider says.
A free version of its BandPage service embeds a music player and allows for page customization. The premium version, BandPage Plus, adds the ability for customization and design enhancements for $1.99 per month.
With Facebook growing as a key place for online marketing, RootMusic is currently on a roll. At 12.7 million monthly active users, RootMusic is the top ranked Facebook entertainment app and the 17th most popular app overall. It’s monthly user base far exceeds that of ReverbNation (4.3 million), Spotify (1.9 million), Xbox Live (1.8 million) and iLike (1.7 million).
Lil Wayne and Avril Lavigne have recently used RootMusic to unveil new music at their Facebook pages. Lil Wayne’s “6 Foot 7 Foot” was released exclusively at Facebook on Dec. 14, the day before it was available at iTunes. The song was streamed over 500,000 times in just a few days, Sider says.