GIMME RADIO To Shut Down After Being Unable To Secure Necessary Financing

Social audio platform Gimme Radio has announced that it will be shutting down at the end of April due to the company's inability "to raise the financing needed to support the streaming services and grow Gimme to reach all music fans across all genres."

Launched in 2017, Gimme Radio, a platform for artists to create listening experiences for fans, while receiving compensation via digital and physical subscriptions, virtual tipping, ecommerce, and ticketing, had previously gotten funding from Wayra X, the 100% remote venture capital branch of Telefónica, iHeartMedia, The Orchard, Concord, Metal Blade Records, Riser House Entertainment and Quartz Hill Records.

Tyler Lenane, CEO of Gimme Radio, explained the decision to shut down the Gimme Metal and Gimme Country apps in a lengthy statement posted earlier today (Monday, April 10). He wrote in part: "On July 29th, 2017, I published a piece entitled, 'What is This That Stands Before Me?' — a line lifted from the first track off the first BLACK SABBATH record. The article announced the launch of Gimme Radio. In the piece I explained that after years of shaping the digital music industry at companies like Apple, Beats, Napster, and Google, myself and co-founders Jon Maples, Andy Gilliland, and David Rosenberg were going to change digital music forever. We saw the shortcomings, and we were here to fix them.

"Our goals were not simple and not small. We set out to create a new platform where fans could have meaningful connections with one another and the artists they loved. On Gimme, music discovery wasn't going to be dictated by algorithms or editorially driven 'thematic' playlists, but rather hand-picked by the most trusted sources — the artists. We wanted to build a venue where fans of genres outside of mainstream hip hop and pop were not marginalized, but catered to; and where the business model was not obtrusive ads or a one-size-fits all $9.99 monthly subscription, but selling the goods and services fans craved.

"And change it we did. In a time before the words 'creator economy,' 'social audio,' and even 'community' were commonplace for digital media products and services, we built two vibrant communities of hundreds of thousands of fans that were ignored by every other music service: Gimme Metal for the metalheads and Gimme Country for the fans of Americana and Alternative Country. At a time when there were no off-the-shelf chat services, we built our own; where there was no software to deliver true radio-like quality experiences to the phone, we took old school terrestrial radio software and rejiggered it for a digital-first, mobile experience; because there were no systems that could automatically plug into multiple wholesalers and vendors and connect with an e-commerce storefront, we built one.

"Everything we did started and ended with the music fan. We knew that music fans don't just come in one size, and so we built for the four music fan personas we identified: the Influencer, the Explorer, the Socializer, and the Collector. And we created revenue streams that played into each of these personas' spending habits.

"Ask the hundreds of thousands of fans who registered for the service or the 1,600-plus artists who hosted shows or appeared on the platform; ask the independent Metal and Country labels with whom we've created millions of dollars worth of exclusive goods and services. They'll all say the same thing: Gimme matters. And what's most astounding, is that we did all of this with just six full-time employees and with a little over $7M in funding over the course of six years. I'm incredibly proud of this small, but powerful team who forever changed the digital music landscape, and I'm confident that Gimme has proved that building communities of fans on a genre-by-genre basis is the next step in the evolution of streaming music.

"But, sadly, today, I'm writing to announce that we are pulling the plug on Gimme on April 29, 2023. 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, 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."

Read the entire post at Medium.com.

Gimme Metal was previously described in a press release as "the ultimate new music service for the true music fan, and the only online music service designed with the idea of community at its core. Fans can connect directly with their favorite artists by listening to their music (for free) and supporting them through tipping, joining the monthly vinyl subscription, and merchandise sales. Gimme is a community of over 350k fans from around the world where artists and tastemakers choose the music, and everyone is welcome to chat and socialize while they're listening. Musicians and fans can use Gimme's unique tools to connect and curate a music channel, while the entire fanbase chats and reacts in real time, building a new kind of community around music curation. We are home to DJs like Dave Mustaine of MEGADETH, Jeff Becerra from POSSESSED, Blasko, Brian Posehn, Johan Hegg from AMON AMARTH, Will Carroll from DEATH ANGEL, numerous writers, metal scholars, labels like Nuclear Blast, Decibel magazine, and festivals like Wacken. Our founders are all music executives with extensive experience at digital music services like Beats, Apple Music, Google Play, & Napster."