With more than a billion hours of video uploaded to YouTube every day, with 50 million YouTubers uploading video content to the platform and with the number of channels earning six figures growing by 40 percent year-on-year, there is a huge addressable market of creators looking for music, presenting a clear engagement opportunity for all parties. Understanding this, Lickd was founded as the world’s leading service for accessing claims-free commercial music.
Growth plans ahead
Lickd, based out of London, is the world’s first service for providing video creators with access to chart music. The startup just announced that it has closed £5.1 million in its latest fundraising round. The round was led by the Nick Mason Group and strategic investment from both Warner Music Group (WMG) and Epic Games, creator of Fortnite.
Besides investment, Lickd also got access to some of the best talent in the entertainment world with this fundraising round. This investment round will not only enable Lickd to amplify its commercial song library but also provide greater value to its content creators and allow the company to continue to build its technology offering, its international footprint and its customer base.
Paul Sampson, CEO of Lickd commented, “We are thrilled to have closed this round at what is a pivotal time for Lickd. As the content creator space continues to expand, there is a huge opportunity for all types of business to invest in new areas and to work hand-in-hand with companies such as ours to positively transform the music industry. The ongoing support of the Nick Mason Group, combined with Epic and Warner coming on board, delivers a win-win for all – for Lickd as we continue to expand, for the creators who want commercial music to better monetize their content, for the artists who want to be paid fairly for their work and for the broader ecosystem as we create new ways to grow”.
Nick Mason added “We invest in companies that combine transformational technology with strong industry knowledge, which Lickd has proven it has from the outset. Having these strategic partnerships in place from leading brands in the entertainment space is testament to both Lickd’s proposition and to its clout in the music and creator space. We are excited to be able to continue to support Paul and team and to remain a part of the company’s future”.
Partnerships and agreements
Founded in 2017 by Paul Sampson and Simon Davis, Lickd is a music licensing marketplace for music producers and video creators. It enables video creators to search for music based on artist, genre, and more and use the same in their commercial projects such as Youtube videos, and more. Also, it allows music creators to upload their music on the platform. It monetises through the number of views of uploaded videos.
It does all this with its VOUCH software, which lets online video creators to licence music without losing their ad revenue to a copyright claim. The company services digital creators from all over the world.
Over the last 18 months, Lickd witnessed incredible growth and has signed partnership agreements with both WMG and Universal Music Group (UMG) in addition to a number of other leading brands in the content and entertainment space, including Epic Games. With these partnerships, Lickd will make its full catalogue of millions of songs available to content creators and also expand its library of tracks.