San Francisco-based independent label, distribution and publishing company EMPIRE has made a strategic investment in un:hurd music, a platform specializing in automated music marketing and promotion.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
According to a press release from un:hurd, this strategic investment takes place as part of the company’s ongoing fundraise, “of which current investors such as Willard Ahdritz and Dan Runcie’s Trapital Ventures have already re-invested alongside Mindset Ventures MusicTech”.
The financial backing from EMPIRE aims to speed up the development of un:hurd’s technology and at the same time provide EMPIRE artists with marketing tools. EMPIRE is known for launching the careers of artists like Kendrick Lamar, Fireboy DML, Shaboozey, Asake, XXXTentacion, and Anderson .Paak.
“EMPIRE’s investment is a very credible nod to the work we do and it’s [a] credit to the team for the work they’ve put in over the last 12 months to make this happen,” said Alex Brees, CEO and founder of un:hurd.
“I’m incredibly excited to be working with EMPIRE, whose legacy as a leading independent publisher, distributor, and label is monumental and to be able to support their roster of talented artists globally.”
“EMPIRE’s investment is a very credible nod to the work we do and it’s [a] credit to the team for the work they’ve put in over the last 12 months to make this happen.”
Alex Brees, un:hurd
The partnership will grant EMPIRE artists direct access to un:hurd’s platform for artist marketing. The platform has already established collaborations with CD Baby, SoundCloud, and Fiverr.com.
The financial injection will support the development of new features within the un:hurd platform, including the recently launched “release cycle” tool. This tool provides artists with step-by-step guidance, templates, and promotional resources throughout their music release process, taking artists from day one of planning their release through to post-release marketing.
The launch of the new tool follows un:hurd’s acquisition of Thailand-based IndieKnow in November. IndieKnow provides educational resources for musicians.
“We have a very strong community of over 125,000 artists and record labels. We speak with them, we listen to them and we build for them,” Brees said.
“Our mission is to create a tool which provides real value to artists and record labels and so it’s critical we take into account their feedback. The new release cycles and reworked UI is based on the hours of work we’ve carried out with our community, and we’re confident it’s a big step in the right direction when it comes to music marketing and promotion.”
For EMPIRE, the deal marks its latest investment after acquiring San Francisco-based dance record label, Dirtybird, in October 2022, and taking a majority stake in merchandising and e-commerce company Top Drawer Merch/Electric Family in June 2020. In 2021, EMPIRE joined a $4 million funding round for social platform Riff.
For un:hurd, the investment comes a year after it announced a “six-figure” strategic funding round that included investments from Nigerian artist/record exec Mr Eazi, Dutch DJ/producer Sam Feldt, and Kobalt’s Willard Ahdritz, who also led a “seven-figure” funding round for un:hurd in 2023.
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