Music sharing platform Byta, which allows musicians and record labels to send and receive digital audio, has raised CA$1.9m in a round led by the Canada Media Fund and a series of private investors.
Among the investors is musician Scott Kannberg, founding member of 90s indie rock band Pavement, who came to Byta as a user.
“In the old days, I would share my music with others via cassette tape or a cdr. It would take hours and lots of postage! Today, with Byta, I can share my music with bandmates, labels, promoters, writers, dj’s, etc in one click. I haven’t found anything as easy and digitally sound as Byta which is why I invested,” said Kannberg.
Byta was founded in 2015 by CEO Marc Brown. The SaaS platform is specifically designed for the sharing of music files between musicians and industry representatives.
The platform allows for the streaming, downloading and renaming of shared files with a focus on privacy.
Until recently, the company was bootstrapped by its founders.
“We built Byta from the ground up, it’s the same advice I give to artists: Get everything in place yourself first, make sure you are ready, then look for outside help. Byta is ready,” said Marc Brown.
Co-founder and Head of Product Jen Pomphrey said privately sending files or streams has been difficult to accomplish without the risk of ‘leaks’ of unfinished and unreleased tracks.
Major artists have previously been affected by these leaks, including Madonna and Kanye West – whose music was either uncovered by hackers or released by accident.
“This is the problem Byta is solving and why we are committing substantial new capital to product development,” explains Pomphrey.