Cantilever, a curated music streaming platform for independent artists, has secured a £250,000 pre-seed funding round from a consortium of 13 independent record labels and individual investors affiliated with those companies.
The investment, which completes Cantilever’s targeted pre-seed round, was formalized during a discussion convened by The Organization for Recorded Culture and Arts (ORCA), a global think tank and advocacy group formed by independent record labels to advance the economic, social, and cultural value of recorded music.
Label consortium and ORCA backing
The label investors include:
- !K7
- Because
- City Slang
- Domino
- Everlasting
- Exceleration
- Hopeless
- Ninja Tune
- Partisan
- Playground
- Secret City
- Secretly Group
- Sub Pop
Christof Elinghaus, founder of City Slang and a founding ORCA supporter, said:
“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. When we came across Cantilever, we were thrilled to find a concept that 100% aligns with our values and is driven by heavy curation, fairness and enthusiasm for our artist’s music. That is something that all of us are truly happy to support. Still, our investment in Cantilever can only be seen as a tiny step towards a fair, artist-and-label centric streaming ecosystem. We still have many more steps to go.”
Founder response and platform vision
Aaron Skates, Cantilever founder, said:
“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. 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.”
Patrick Clifton, ORCA’s Executive Director, 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.”
Cantilever offers a streaming experience centred on album curation and contextual presentation, with a user-centric payment system designed to distribute revenue more directly to artists based on individual listening habits.
