Metallica are among investors in a $13.7million (£10.8million) funding round for the new artist-to-fan platform Medallion.
The heavy metal veterans supported the platform – which allows artists to have a dedicated hub for releases, concerts, merchandise and more – for its Series A round.
The round, co-led by Dragonfly and Lightspeed Faction, was secured with the support of Metallica’s Black Squirrel Partners alongside fellow musicians like Guy Lawrence of Disclosure, Jungle, Tiga and more. Various other tech investors included Coinbase Ventures, Infinite Capital and J17.
Other music industry investors include Bill Silva Entertainment, Foundations Artist Management, Mt Joy, Method and TAG Music.
Medallion, which launched in 2022, enables artists to cultivate a community-focused digital environment that allows for better fan engagement.
As we continue to build the best direct-to-fan platform for music artists, we are thrilled to announce our $13.7 million Series A financing, led by @dragonfly_xyz and @lightspeedvp @FactionVC. https://t.co/VDU9q2u4pw
— 𖥞 Medallion (@medallionfm) December 21, 2023
Other artists currently using Medallion include My Morning Jacket, Girl in Red and Sigur Rós.
“While streaming has opened up access to music and social media and created new channels for direct distribution, the full potential of direct artist-to-fan connections has not been realized,” Matt Jones, co-founder and CEO of Medallion said in a statement (via Music Week). “Medallion’s artist-centric approach and emphasis on digitally native fan experiences is helping usher in a new, transformative period for artists.”
“Artists owning direct access to their fans is critical, but they also need more ways to deliver value for it to drive impact,” Jones added.
Rob Hadick, general partner at Dragonfly, added: “Artists are starting to understand they are not just content creators, but brands themselves, and as a result are building multimodal businesses that go beyond simply music and content.”
“Artists only have direct relationships with a fraction of their fanbase,” said Will Leas at Lightspeed Faction. “Medallion solves this problem by unlocking direct artist-to-fan connection. The team has a history of building pioneering technology for the world’s biggest artists, and we are thrilled to back them on this journey.”
Medallion recently introduced the feature “Digital Deluxe”, a digital version of an album with additional experiential features like imagery and videos. Jungle’s released their most recent album ‘Volcano‘ in the format.
The company is planning to expand to a few hundred more artists in 2024, according to TechCrunch.
In other news from Metallica, the band performed their first show in Saudi Arabia this month, making them only the second international metal act to perform there.