When Breaker secured a $4.2 million round in 2021, it was the last time we talked about the platform that links record labels, artists, and businesses with social media influencers to launch massive campaigns programmatically. Over 30,000 influencers have been added to Breakr in the last two years, and the platform has handled creator transactions totaling over $3.5 million. At a $20 million valuation, Breakr has now raised an extra $1.9 million to support its expansion.
The company will use the expansion, which Slow Ventures is spearheading, for product advancement and hiring. With the support of a fantastic group of investors, including Marc Benioff, a16z/TxO, former Tik Tok CEO Kevin Mayer, RGA Ventures, Charles Hudson (Precursor Ventures), Rich Antoniello, the creator of Complex, Lo Toney (Plexo Capital), Anthony Selah (WndrCo), and Quiet Capital, Breakr has raised $8.7 million so far.
Breakr’s growing user base demonstrates the magnitude of the creator economy. However, a small amount of this fundraising round and the company’s total transaction value over the previous two years indicate that many business models are still relatively new.
However, a great deal of hope is placed in it. According to Goldman Sachs, by 2027, the creator economy’s whole addressable market might be valued at as much as $480 billion.
Def Jam, Samsung, Billboard, Rolling Loud, Live Nation, Meta, Tidal, Epic, Kit Kat, P&G, Celsius, Mountain Dew, and White Claw are just a few of the labels and businesses utilizing Breakr to link music to marketing efforts. The players taking attention and conducting business on the platform also tell a narrative. Meanwhile, musicians like Kanye West, Brent Faiyaz, Tobe Nwigwe, Pink Panther, Armani White, Charlieonna Friday, Rick Ross, Gunna, JID, Sleepy Hallow, Ozzy Ozbourne, Black Pink, Young Thug, and Nas (who is also an investor) are among them.
Today’s market is an entire platform linking businesses, producers, and content (music and other media) to create influencer campaigns. Breakr’s distinguishing feature is how it approaches this fundamental idea as a programmatic opportunity, much like how web advertising is produced, marketed, and delivered.
According to co-founder Anthony Brown, “Breakr wants to be the Google Ad Words, powered by creators,” he stated to TechCrunch. “We think that it should be as simple to come into Breakr and spend $15,000 as it is to set it and forget it on Google, given the underlying audience data, mass liquidity, and intelligence capabilities.”
The firm began with a more hands-on approach and emerged from closed beta as a self-service SaaS platform. A wallet that serves as an escrow account and allows money to be transferred in and out of it in exchange for services being engaged and provided forms the foundation of the SaaS platform.
According to Brown, “this shift to a SaaS model is in line with our objective to democratize and expedite the influencer marketing process, making it more effective and accessible for a wider range of users in the music industry and beyond.”
Breakr is currently configured as a three-sided marketplace. To be eligible for campaigns, creators must submit their profiles to the site.
On the music front, musicians (or record companies) submit tracks for a specific campaign; if chosen, those tracks are then marketed to new listeners. Although musicians may have to pay for their music to be utilized, they receive a portion of the campaign’s proceeds in exchange.
In terms of marketing, companies search for influencers to host campaigns and have access to 40 data points about each influencer, including language, audio location, interest categories, and more. Additionally, they can examine the engagement rates and previous material from those influencers. More importantly, though, they can perform some diagnostics to check for brand safety and determine whether the influencer in issue engages in the use of phony followers (if so, determine how significant it is for them).
Digital marketers and creators are increasingly forming direct, tailored, and scalable partnerships as the creator economy—particularly in the music industry—fastly advances. Technologies that focus on building relationships and are more efficient are replacing traditional management tools. Personalized content and offers to authors may be distributed easily using these platforms, eliminating the need for expensive, transient campaigns. According to Brown, this evergreen marketing strategy that emphasizes the value of consistent engagement versus one-time encounters is working well.
Breakr’s primary business is music promotion, but in the long run, it hopes to expand into other industries, including television and movies.
