Hello Music Raises $4 Million from KVG Partners

Hello Music Raises $4 Million from KVG Partners

KVG Joins with Wilshire Media Group to Fund Company that will Identify Talent and Power Musicians' Careers Venture will link Musicians to opportunities from Digital Partners Including AudioMicro, Getty Images, GigMaven, LyricFind, MediaNet, Next Big Sound, Slacker, Topspin, TuneCore and Yahoo! Music

CANNES, France, Jan. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- MIDEM -- Hello Music, a new music company that combines technology resources with the art of A&R to identify talented musicians and connect them with career opportunities, announced today that it has received $4 million in private equity financing from KVG Partners. Hello Music was conceived and incubated by Wilshire Media Group, a digital music product design and development firm founded by Zack Zalon and Brendon Cassidy. Hello Music will launch with the participation of KVG. Dick Kiphart, the lead investor in KVG, principle at William Blair and Company, and president and CEO of The Lyric Opera of Chicago, has joined the company as chairman of the board. Initial Hello Music opportunities will come from partners AudioMicro, Getty Images, GigMaven, LyricFind, MediaNet, Next Big Sound, Slacker, Topspin, TuneCore and Yahoo! Music.

Zack Zalon, managing partner of Wilshire Media Group and Hello Music, said, "Technology has created infinite possibilities for musicians to distribute and promote their music, but there are fewer gatekeepers to identify quality acts and actually help them connect to the opportunities that power a career. Hello Music believes you need a team of industry professionals -- real people -- to evaluate that music to find those artists whose careers will grow. The Hello Music collective gives talent a chance to build on successes, whether that is on Internet radio, a television commercial, an iPhone app, or by providing access to tools to better manage their career."

Chris Capps, president and CEO of KVG Partners, said, "KVG is interested in identifying companies that will build long-standing value. The potential of the Internet to help unsigned artists has been steadily growing since the early '90s, but the digital music business needed to mature enough to support the Hello Music vision. The time is now right for Hello Music - a company that combines digital music technology with the human A&R function, providing musicians with opportunities to help them find success on their own terms."

Hello Music founders Zalon and Cassidy have extensive music and technology track records. They were the first two employees at Farmclub.com in the late 1990s, and President and CTO, respectively, of Virgin Digital, Richard Branson's digital entertainment platform group. While there, they launched the ground breaking Internet radio service, Radio Free Virgin. After seven years with Virgin, in 2006 they formed Wilshire Media Group, a product design and development company for digital entertainment products.

While incubating Hello Music, Zalon and Cassidy used the same rigorous "digital blueprint" process they apply when working with high-profile Fortune 500 media companies to help them formulate and execute their digital entertainment strategies. They wanted to create a digital music company that could help unsigned and independent artists flourish. After listening to dozens of artists in focus groups, surveying the current landscape of artist-focused services, and researching all the aspects of career development, the Hello Music model emerged.

Hello Music is simple to use, and a beta version is now available at www.hellomusic.com. Artists can upload their music and input their information at HelloMusic.com. From there, the company's evaluation team takes over, screening the quality of the music submissions and determining where they fit into the musical landscape. This filtering process -- by trained human ears -- is key to the Hello Music model. The company's scouting team is made up of industry advisors, songwriters and composers, world-class musicians, ex-label A & R people, and independent music aficionados who all share a love and passion for great music. The Hello Music team evaluates the music in advance for partner companies, giving them a clear professional assessment about all the music on the service. At the same time, it gives the artist feedback to assist with their career development and connect them with the right Hello Music partner opportunity. If the Hello Music partner yields revenue for the artist, the revenue will be shared between Hello Music and the artist. Terms will depend on the specific opportunity, and the artist always has the option to decide whether they want to participate with a particular partner. Hello Music takes nothing from the artist up front and will participate as the artist achieves various career milestones.

Initial Hello Music partners include:
-- AudioMicro (Synchronization Service): Top tracks from Hello Music will
have the option to be added to the Premium Collection of this
pioneering micro-stock licensing service, supplying a revenue stream
from YouTube videos, podcasts, TV, film, iPhone Apps and more for
creative audio-visual projects. AudioMicro offers one of the largest
user-generated micro stock music libraries, with over 200,000 tracks
from publishers, composers, record labels, and sound designers
worldwide. www.audiomicro.com

-- Getty Images (Synchronization Service): Hello Music artists that
qualify will be able to make their music available within a featured
collection on this leading synchronization licensing service, putting
their music in front of the companies that license music for film, TV,
and commercials. www.gettyimages.com/music

-- GigMaven (Online gig booking platform): GigMaven and Hello Music will
create new opportunities for artists to book live performances.
Optimizing the gig booking process for artists provides more
recognition, fan interaction and revenue. GigMaven is currently
booking gigs in NYC and will be rolling out to additional cities in
the near future. www.gigmaven.com

-- LyricFind (Digital Lyrics Service): Select Hello Music artists' lyrics
will be included on LyricFind's digital lyric search engine and
catalog, right alongside all the major music publishers, as well as
thousands of independent publishers, gaining additional income when
the services that use LyricFind's database, including iPhone Lyrics
apps such as LyricFind, Lyrics+ and Camena, as well as Lyrics.com,
Rhapsody, Slacker, Shazam, Music.com, and many more, deliver those
tracks. www.lyricfind.com

-- MediaNet (Digital Distribution): Top-rated Hello Music tracks will be
guaranteed inclusion in MediaNet's catalog, which powers music
distribution services for a number of Web publishers and application
developers, including iLike, MOG, Fox News, Ultimate Guitar, Complete
Playlists, Intertech Media and many more. www.mndigital.com

-- Next Big Sound (Music Analytics): All Hello Music artists will have
access to artist specific data aggregated across the most relevant
social networking and media sites including Facebook, My Space, You
Tube and Twitter among many others. This real-time presentation of
online activity currently tracks changes in fans, plays, views and
comments providing information crucial for results analysis, finding
opportunities and making intelligent decisions. www.nextbigsound.com

-- Slacker (Internet Radio): Hello Music will be the premier submission
service for unsigned artists to Slacker Radio, giving them a path to
be part of the Slacker music catalog. Slacker listeners can then
integrate these artists and songs into their custom or genre Personal
Radio stations, which can be enjoyed on the on the web, the most
popular smartphones and a growing number of Internet-enabled portable
and home devices. www.slacker.com

-- Topspin (Direct-to-Fan Marketing Software): Select Hello Music artists
will gain access to this leading-edge software platform. Topspin is
the most complete technology platform for artists to create their own
retail channels, effectively promote their music, and connect directly
with their fans. www.topspinmedia.com

-- TuneCore (Digital Music Distribution): Hello Music artists will
receive a significant discount on TuneCore's services, so their music
and videos can be made available on iTunes, eMusic, Amazonmp3 and many
other major download sites, providing additional exposure and revenue
opportunities. www.tunecore.com

-- Yahoo! Music (Online Radio): Top songs on Hello Music will be featured
in the independent artist channel of this premier online music
destination site. Yahoo! Music sites reach over 20 million people
every month in the United States and more than 50 million people
worldwide. www.music.yahoo.com

Twitter: @hello_music

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Hello-Music

Hello Music Media Contacts:

At MIDEM: In US:
Paula Batson Laurie Jakobsen
917-873-8294 646-484-6764
paula.batson@gmail.comlaurie@jaybirdcom.com

Source: Hello Music

CONTACT: At MIDEM: Paula Batson, +1-917-873-8294,
paula.batson@gmail.com; or In US: Laurie Jakobsen, +1-646-484-6764,
laurie@jaybirdcom.com

Web Site: http://www.hellomusic.com/

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Profile: intent