Goom Radio Raises $16M First Round For Broadcast Service
This story was written by David Kaplan.
Battles between streaming-music sites and the labels over royalties have scared off some internet radio startups, but not all. One that is persevering is Goom Radio, which has raised over $16 million in first-round funding, to bring its mix of professional and user-gen playlists stateside. The New York company launched a version of its service in France last fall. Backers include Wellington Partners Venture Capital, Elaia Partners and Partech International.
The company is headed by Rob Williams, former president and market manager for Clear Channel (NYSE: CCU) New York. He's joined by chief sales officer Drew Hilles, who led dMarc Broadcasting through an acquisition by Google (NSDQ: GOOG), where he served as a director for four years. The company recently hired broadcast vet Joe Anastasi as account executive of the sales team. Anastasi was recently at Google Audio. About two months ago, Google shut down its Radio Ads product and is now developing a streaming audio-ad-placement service.
Goom's subscription service is free and ad-supported. In addition to allowing its community to select stations tailored to their interests, Goom also notes that it employs DJs, programmers and journalists to provide the music and news. The funding will go toward building up its sales team and technology. Release
By David Kaplan