Live Nation has launched Boomrat, a new electronic dance music discovery platform incubated through the promotion company's start-up subsidiary Live Nation Labs.
Boomrat has been a part of Live Nation labs since August 2013, when it first acquired the platform. Though no exact figure was given for the deal, a source with knowledge of the transaction put the deal in the seven-figure range, with another seven figures pledged for investment.
The new digital platform culls dance music content from over 300 dance music blogs, and sites like SoundCloud, to identify current trends within the wildly dynamic EDM space. The vertical also includes a trending chart updated hourly that uses SoundCloud's API and will soon incorporate YouTube data. The Boomrat platform also includes playlists by artists, industry players and super fans, allowing users to create, share and follow friends and artists’ playlists.
With its incubation complete, Boomrat will be housed within the Los Angeles-based Insomniac's offices, the Electric Daisy promotions company Live Nation partnered with in 2013, when it acquired a 50% stake in the company.
Co-founders Andrew Silberstein and Ariel Lee developed Boomrat while attending the Lloyd Greif School of Entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California. Their concept won the school’s prestigious New Venture Seed Competition in 2012 and was noticed by WME head of music Marc Geiger, who connected the duo with Live Nation's president of electronic dance music James Barton and Live Nation CEO/chairman Michael Rapino, who brought the platform into the Live Nation Labs fold. Live Nation Labs was founded in 2011 when it acquired Big Champagne. Subsequent acquisitions include Rexly, Setlist.fm, Meexo and YourTrove.
Co-founders Andrew Silberstein and Ariel Lee developed Boomrat while attending the Lloyd Greif School of Entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California. Their concept won the school’s prestigious New Venture Seed Competition in 2012 and was noticed by WME head of music Marc Geiger, who connected the duo with Live Nation's president of electronic dance music James Barton and Live Nation CEO/chairman Michael Rapino, who brought the platform into the Live Nation Labs fold. Live Nation Labs was founded in 2011 when it acquired Big Champagne. Subsequent acquisitions include Rexly, Setlist.fm, Meexo and YourTrove.
“We relentlessly look for young, talented entrepreneurs to join Live Nation,” Barton told Billboard. "We were delighted to acquire Boomrat and have co-founders Andrew and Ariel join our team, who are leading the next generation of the electronic dance business with some smart solutions and their first product.”
Boomrat receives oversight from both Live Nation Labs and Insomniac as well as Roc Nation's Three Six Zero Group, the electronic dance music management company founded in 2007 by Mark Gillespie, Dean Wilson and Alan Rutherford. The firm’s roster includes Calvin Harris, Nero and Kelis, among others.
Barton also noted that EDM is Live Nation's fastest-growing genre, which is in keeping with a recent EDM study that valued the genre's business at at least $6.2 billion.
“New blogs and tracks are constantly launching and it’s impossible for one person to follow them all,” Boomrat co-founder Lee said. “Dance music is constantly evolving while being shared and consumed in a different manner than other genres, and this can make it challenging for fans to keep up.” Boomrat hopes to change that.
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