Artistic platform EVEN, which permits artists to promote music on to followers, stated it has closed a $2.2 million seed spherical led by CSA Companions.

The platform positions itself as the primary cease earlier than artists launch music on streaming platforms. Followers, in return, obtain entry to unique content material and experiences. The corporate’s CEO and founder, Magazine Rodriguez, says he began constructing the platform final February as a means to assist Black and brown artists retain fairness of their artistic work.

Rodriguez stated EVEN goals to handle different ache factors that artists have as we speak, comparable to being compensated or credited correctly, by letting them join with their fan base simply, which in flip lets followers help artists and keep away from having to pay charges to reseller platforms.

One of many greatest points is that Black and brown artists are sometimes not credited correctly as the source for a lot of mainstream tendencies. This example is worse for artists coping with streaming platforms, a few of which have been accused of not correctly compensating any of their artists in a good method.

For followers, it has turn out to be increasingly costly to help their favourite artists. For instance, live performance tickets go to resellers who then jack up the worth, or alternatives solely go to unique bank card members slightly than somebody inside the artist’s core fanbase. All of this usually leaves out Black, brown and different followers from marginalized communities who can’t afford resale tickets or qualify for costly, unique alternatives.

“Among the greatest artists on the planet are Black and brown, however the corporations that service them usually are not being led by individuals who seem like them, therefore this huge challenge of artists not getting paid sufficient or being paid every day,” Rodriguez added.

Rodriguez says the enterprise plans to make use of the seed cash for hiring and to assist develop the enterprise. The platform, presently in beta, is free to make use of and ad-free in the mean time, and it generates income by charging transaction charges. EVEN is constructed on the blockchain in an effort to present extra transparency concerning such transactions.

The corporate plans to associate with artists like French Montana and experiment with merchandise like a chat function to permit artists and followers to speak. EVEN hopes to launch later this yr with greater than 600 artists; Rodriguez stated the waitlist of these seeking to be a part of the platform presently tops 4,000.

A music trade veteran of 10 years, Rodriguez was launched to the tech world after he helped construct an artwork program for the gener8tor, a startup accelerator primarily based in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2018. As that program grew to become extra in style, he was launched to buyers concerned with the accelerator, who then launched him to others who helped him increase the seed funding.

He’s now a part of a rarified membership: In any given yr, less than 5% of all venture capital funding goes to Latino founders. Since fund managers are additionally woefully underrepresented (lower than 5% of VCs are Latino) Rodriguez stated when constructing his cap desk, he made certain to incorporate various fund managers like Raquel Filmanowicz, who identifies as Latino and is the founder and managing associate at VC 414.

Talking to TechCrunch, Filmanowicz stated that Rodriguez’s “artistic and progressive method to fixing a vexing drawback within the music trade” made him “precisely the kind of entrepreneur VC 414” was seeking to again. “We’re impressed with EVEN’s early traction and intensely proud to be an early investor in EVEN Labs.”

Different buyers within the spherical embody gANGELS, gener8tor and angel buyers Daniel Rotman, Adie Akuffo-Afful and Ogo.