Cantilever Secures £250k Funding
UK-based startup Cantilever has received £250,000 in pre-seed funding from a group of 20 independent labels and individuals connected to those companies. Labels contributing to the investment include !K7, Because, City Slang, Domino, Everlasting, Exceleration, Hopeless, Ninja Tune, Partisan, Playground, Secret City, Secretly Group and Sub Pop.
Cantilever launched its mobile application in the UK last year, focusing on offering a curated selection of music rather than a large library. Subscribers pay a monthly fee of £4.99 for access to 10 featured albums, accompanied by long-form journalism and artist interviews. The album selection is updated monthly.
The service employs a user-centric royalty distribution model, allocating royalties from each subscriber based on their individual listening habits.
Independent label organization ORCA announced the funding. All participating labels are also supporters of ORCA.
“Cantilever was built to serve independent record labels and artists, so having over a dozen of the world’s leading independents backing us is the strongest validation we could ask for,” said Cantilever founder Aaron Skates. “This funding will allow us to make our first hires, improve the user experience and accelerate growth, with partners who have a genuine stake in the company’s success and know exactly who we’re trying to reach.”
The company is in the early stages of development, having recently begun the process of hiring its first employees.
Cantilever is one of several startups aiming to provide an alternative to major streaming platforms with a focus on independent music. The closure of Nina, a similar service, highlights the challenges of establishing a sustainable business in this area.
“Independent labels have very few true partners left in the ecosystem. The platforms that make our music available follow their own agenda, which doesn’t always align with the interests of our community,” said Christof Ellinghaus, founder of City Slang and a key figure within ORCA. He described Cantilever as “driven by heavy curation, fairness and enthusiasm for our artists’ music” and characterized the funding as “a tiny step towards a fair, artist-and-label centric streaming ecosystem. We still have many more steps to go.”
ORCA executive director Patrick Clifton added, “Cantilever’s proposition allows for immersion in the musicians’ art in a way that’s atypical in today’s environment of content overload. ORCA’s supporters were united in their desire to see it succeed.”
