Official.fm raises $8 million for DIY music

Platform enables musicians to upload songs, then distribute, sell, track and more

Official.fm, a management platform for music creators, announced this week that it has raised $8 million in new funding. We’ve reached out to the company to learn who the investors are and will update once we receive word.

Dubbing itself “the do it yourself music club,” Official.fm is following through with a sentiment that permeated the air of Monday’s SF MusicTech Summit (and that flows through the industry, in general). And it’s that the power to be a musician--to create music, market it, distribute it, and everything else--requires nothing more than the sheer will of the musician. No record labels, no promotional teams, just the musician.

“We strongly believe in Do It Yourself,” writes CEO Jeremie Abihssira, “because it’s not necessary to get on TV or in magazines anymore to be successful: recording a good song, uploading it, and connecting with a bunch of fans can do the trick. We’ll make it easier to reach your fans wherever they are.”

In just a few minutes, anyone can create an account on Official.fm and immediately start uploading tracks. Users can choose whether to keep their profiles public or private, so that only certain people with a password can access the content. They also have the option of letting people either stream their tracks or download them. For those musicians with tracks listed on digital stores like Amazon or iTunes, direct links can be added alongside those tracks.

Management and distribution of songs goes on and on at Official.fm: create a song player, share on social networks with a click, monitor statistics like play count and downloads, upload to a dropbox for instant sharing and more.

Abihssira says hundreds of thousands of artists, labels and promoters already use the platform.

Going forward, the company plans to expand its API to enhance music discovery on third-party sites like Shuffler.fm. The team is also developing a desktop track manager to make it even easier for musicians to monitor their content on the Web.

“Just as music software made music creation and recording democratic, official.fm will democratize music promotion and distribution,” writes Abihssira. “We are living in exciting times; let’s build a bright future for the music industry together, where creators are at the center of the equation.”

Official.fm isn’t alone in this endeavor, of course. The most obvious Web service that comes to mind is SoundCloud, which is also well-funded. But the music industry is very large and I’m not sure only one player will dominate.

The new funding will help Official.fm accelerate development of the platform and hire more talent to bolster its 15-person team. Interested applicants can send their info to jobs@official.fm.