Songkick raises new $15M round from Access Industries, expands US operations

Songkick, which allows you to track the gigs of your favorite music artists and buy tickets to concerts, has raised a further $15 million in funding from Access Industries.

Songkick says it now plans to use the money to “enhance the connection between artists and fans,” increase ticket sales and prevent scalping.

Songkick’s app and web platform scans a user’s music collection from their music or via a streaming service like Spotify and finds the upcoming gigs from those acts local to the user.

The U.K. startup, which now has a sizeable presence in the U.S., previously secured $10 million, also from Access Industries. The company has now raised more than $60 million in total.

In June 2016, Songkick merged with artist-ticketing service Crowdsurge in an attempt to break Ticketmaster’s hold on the market. Songkick has now won over acts including Paul McCartney, Adele, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica, who prefer the control the platform gives them and its ability to detect when tickets are mostly likely being bought by scalpers.

Matt Jones, chief executive of Songkick, and formerly CEO at Crowdsurge before joining co-founder Ian Hogarth as co-CEO says: “The biggest myth in live music is that ticket scalping is somehow impossible to prevent, but with the right focus and the right tools, these issues can be solved, and Songkick is at the leading edge of solving them.”

Songkick has also been trying to muzzle into the ticketing game. Back in May it suffered a setback in its legal battle with rival ticketing giant Ticketmaster over presales to artist fan clubs after a judge handed a victory to Ticketmaster and Live Nation, the largest concert promoter.

Hogarth, the last original co-founder, has, some months ago, now stepped down from the co-CEO position to become chairman, leaving Jones as CEO.

In addition, Songkick is announcing the expansion of its West Coast office and more senior hires.