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Popular fan curated playlist online radio app 8tracks has secured $2.5 million debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank. The company also announced partnerships with TuneCore, Naxos, Black Hole Recordings and Armand Van Buuren’s Armada Records, adding 2.5 million tracks to its now 9 million song library.
Since launching in 2008, 8tracks has raised $3 million in funding. Last fall, the company raised $1.4 million in a seed round from Index Ventures, SoftTech, Craig Kallman and Steve Aoki.
“Our crowd curated programming model offers listeners greater depth and specificity than on any other lean-back listening service,” says David Porter, 8tracks CEO. “However, to unlock the inherent value of the model, 8tracks must excel in surfacing the right content for a particular listener – to ‘matchmake’ between listeners and DJs, in effect.”
The new funds will help grow the company’s product and engineering teams that are expanding 8tracks’ personalization system and bringing playlist creation to its mobile applications. Last fall, 8tracks introduced a new “explore” experience, personalizing tags That addition increased the likelihood that a listener would favorite a playlist by 30% and complete the playlist in one listening session by 10%.
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