Foundry Group Bets On Next Big Sound For Online Music Analytics

NextBigSound

Updated: An SEC filing shows that Next Big Sound raised $585,000 of a $1 million round.

Next Big Sound, an online music analytics startup, has raised an undisclosed round of funding from VC firm Foundry Group. Next Big Sound pulls data from online sites, including iLike, Last.fm, and MySpace, to track changes in a band’s popularity. Users can either search for the name of a band on the Next Big Sound website or sign up for e-mail reports; the company also plans to sell the data to people in the music industry.

In a blog post, Foundry Group partner Jason Mendelson explains that his firm believes current tools used to measure the popularity of music — including Nielsen’s SoundScan, which measures CD sales and digital downloads — are insufficient. “The explosion of social media, including YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and the blogosphere have shifted the listening audience to other venues and current information sources for the industry do not cover these properties,” he writes.

Mendleson adds that while Foundry does not typically invest in verticals, music is an exception. The firm has also backed online music marketing firm Topspin. “We believe the future of the business lies in direct-to-fan relationships and Internet marketing,” he writes. “As part of this future there will be new opportunities created to service these new direct-to-fan and Internet marketing models. We believe a key opportunity involves data.”

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