The Weekend is adding to his investment portfolio.
A Chicago-based platform by the name of Songfinch has announced that its recent $2 million funding round was led by heavy hitters like The Weeknd, Atlantic Records chairman and CEO Craig Kallman, Reverb founder David Kalt, and co-manager of The Weeknd and co-founder of XO Records, Wassim “Sal” Slaiby.
According to Digital Music News, the platform — which was co-founded by Josh Kaplan, co-manager and legal counsel for Doja Cat, John Williamson, Rob Lindquist, and Scott Kitun — allows fans to order personalized songs created by professional musicians.
Users can not only specify whether they’d like the song to mention the recipient’s name or the occasion at hand, but they can also select the preferred genre and mood of the song.
From there, purchasers will provide personal information and details to allow the creator to craft the personalized track.
Services typically cost $249 per work, but, per the company’s website, it is currently available for $199.
While an official press release doesn’t detail how much was contributed by each person during the latest seed round, it does reveal that the five-year-old company has “created over 20,000 original songs” to date.
“Songfinch gave me an opportunity to send an extraordinary musical gift that proved so moving and emotional for all the people I sent it to,” said Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman. “The creativity and impact of this service is truly remarkable and I had no hesitation becoming an investor.”
Putting money behind platforms geared toward creatives is nothing new for The Weeknd. The 31-year-old just backed the creator-collaboration platform, Pearpop, back in April.
Pearpop, which was created less than a year ago, has raised a total of $6 million thanks to investments from Diddy, Marshmello, Snoop Dogg, and The Chainsmokers.
It looks like music platforms are in their winning season. In early July, live streaming startup Mandolin closed a $12 million Series A. Plus, music licensing and distribution platform Songtradr announced the closing of $50 million Series D in June.
