Crowdcube founder Darren Westlake and co-founder Paul Rose have raised £150,000 for Disco, a new startup which aims to become the ‘Instagram for music’.
Disco is described as the first social media app designed for people to discover new music from others such as DJs, musicians, friends and people whose tastes they trust.
Westlake and Rose launched Disco after becoming frustrated with hearing the same music over and over and finding it difficult to discover new tracks.
Genuinely impartial and spontaneous discovery of music has been replaced with algorithms and biased ‘suggestions’, with music industry giants deciding for us what our music tastes should be. Disco challenges this status quo, putting control over what they are introduced to back into music lovers’ hands.
The investment comes from 230 retail investors, along with four angel cornerstone investors.
Returning to Crowdcube to raise funds for the venture, Westlake has already seen a significant impact. In addition to raising capital, Disco grew new user sign-ups by 386% and increased weekly active users by 156% in the first two weeks of September.
The startup has also received significant interest for partnerships from music-related media companies, artists, and management agencies.
“We always knew crowdfunding would be part of our funding strategy, and we’ve already experienced the power of turning our users into investors,” said Westlake. “The funds will help us grow the team, and we’ve seen an incredible impact on key metrics like new user growth.
“Disco isn’t just another music app – it’s a revolution in discovering and sharing music. We’re really excited to welcome these new investors as part of our journey.”
With the backing of strategic angel investors, Disco has applied for an Innovate UK Smart Grant to further develop its technology. The streaming music market is booming, growing from 616 million users in 2022 to 713 million in 2023. It is expected to reach 1.1 billion by 2030, with 120,000 new songs released daily.
Westlake founded Crowdcube with Luke Lang in 2011. Today it is the leading private market investment platform in Europe and has raised over £2 billion for more than 1,300 mission-driven businesses, having built a community of over 1.7 million members.