ReverbNation

ReverbNation

Type of site	SaaS
Founded	31st October 2006
Headquarters	Durham, North Carolina, United States
Founder(s)	Mike Doernberg, Jed Carlson, Lou Plaia, Robbert Hubbard, Steve Jernigan
CEO	Mike Doernberg
Industry	Music
Employees	90+ worldwide
Parent	eMinor, Inc.
Slogan(s)	Artists First
Website	https://www.reverbnation.com
Alexa rank	1,847[1]
Users	3.8 Million+[2]
Launched	October 31, 2006

ReverbNation Headquarters in Durham, North Carolina

ReverbNation is an online platform that provides tools and opportunities for musicians to manage their careers.^[3] Since it launched in 2006, they have introduced a number of applications and services such as the TuneWidget,^[4] Band Profile Facebook app,^[5][6] and Promote It.^[7][8] In 2014, ReverbNation developed curation-at-scale technology designed to help locate and evaluate large groups of bands and artists, either for licensing and management opportunities or for larger events like Hard Rock Cafe Rising and Summerfest.^[9][10][11] ReverbNation’s user base currently sits at more than 3.8 million musicians, fans, venues, and labels in more than 250 countries worldwide.^[12]

Innovations

• ReverbNation provides a widget that allows its members to place content on web pages. This TuneWidget is a feature that links back to additional content, such as music recommended by the band who created the widget.^[13][14]
• A feature called Band Equity measures popularity based on four metrics of its service: reach, influence, access, and recency. Artists are then ranked according to genre and location.^[15][16]
• Promote It allows independent musicians to advertise on Facebook and other major music websites (Pitchfork Media, Spin (magazine), YouTube), with custom landing pages and dynamic reporting so that users know where their ads have appeared.^[17]
• A music charity program called Music For Good was launched in 2013. This program allows artists to donate half of any MP3 sales to the non-profit of their choice.^[18] As of October 2013, the program consisted of more than 100,000 artists and 13 charities (including Oxfam, Half the Sky, and World Vision International).^[19]
• The Gig Finder tool gives independent musicians access to a database of over 600,000 venues and helps them customize their search based on location, name of the venue they wish to play to, places similar artists have played, and clubs the musician has performed at before.^[20]
• ReverbNation created proprietary "curation-at-scale" technology that allows the company to sort through their artists and locate promising talent. The technology uses a combination of Big data and human tastemaking expertise to review around 200,000 songs a month.^[21][22]
• ReverbNation CONNECT is an invite-only artist development program that helps to guide artists through their career and provide them access to ReverbNation's top-tier industry opportunities. There are around 300 artists currently in the ReverbNation CONNECT program, and each artist has a dedicated manager. The program aims to help with all aspects of an artist's development, including studio sessions, sync licensing placements, publishing rights, live show development, social media strategy, and PR resources.^[23][24]
• EchoMusic by ReverbNation is a music discovery app that features music hand-picked from the site by ReverbNation's Curation Team.^[25]

Events

• The band Rehab headlined the ReverbNation summer 2007 tour.^[26]
• In May, 2008, Judas Priest pre-released a track from its upcoming album on ReverbNation. Its label, Epic Records, described the use of the TuneWidget as "a must have tool for any artist's viral campaign".^[27]
• In Dec, 2009, ReverbNation partnered with Microsoft launching Playlist 7 sponsorship program where 7 top emerging artists were able to showcase their work through a song feature^[28]
• In January 2015, ReverbNation announced an alliance with Summerfest, the "World's Largest Music Festival," in which ReverbNation would become the festival's exclusive online submission platform for three years.^[29]
• In January 2015, ReverbNation announced the fifth straight year of Hard Rock Rising (in collaboration with Hard Rock Cafe), in which bands from across the world would compete in a battle of the bands competition for a spot at Hard Rock Rising 2015 in Barcelona, Spain.^[30]
• ReverbNation and the performance rights organisation SESAC announced a formal partnership in which artists from ReverbNation's artist development branch CONNECT would be extended an invitation to SESAC.^[31]
• ReverbNation partnered with Special Olympics to book more than 120 bands and artists for the Unified Relay Tour across America in the spring of 2015.^[32]
• CONNECT Songs was launched in April 2015. The Music licensing program is run in partnership with Sentric Music, and it allows ReverbNation "to provide administration services under a revenue sharing model with its artists." ^[33][34]
• ReverbNation partnered with Hitcher media to create licensing opportunities in film, TV, video game, and ad spots for its artists. The program is available to its ReverbNation CONNECT artist development roster.^[35]
• "The Watch List" is a monthly singles series presented by ReverbNation's artist development wing, ReverbNation CONNECT, presented in conjunction with The Fader magazine. It features new music and video footage from ReverbNation CONNECT artists who visit studios in New York City and Nashville to record new material for the series.^[36][37]

Awards

• Inc. (magazine) Top 500: Rank #345 (2013) ^[38]
• Inc. (magazine) Top 5,000: Rank #1000 (2014) ^[39]
• Triangle Business Journal 2012, 2013, & 2014 Best Places to Work ^[40][41][42]
• NC Tech Awards 2014: Finalist (New Media/Digital Technology) ^[43]

References