METALLICA Joins $13.7 Million Funding Round for Artist-To-Fan Platform MEDALLION
Medallion, a direct artist-to-fan platform facilitating white-label fan experiences and digitally native commerce for artists, has successfully closed a Series A funding round, raising $13.7 million. The round was co-led by Dragonfly and Lightspeed Faction, featuring participation from technology investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Infinite Capital, J17, The Chernin Group, Third Prime, and Zeal Capital.
Music industry investors involved include Bill Silva Entertainment, Black Squirrel, Guy Lawrence of Disclosure, Foundations Artist Management, Jungle, Mt. Joy, Method, Tiga, and TAG Music. Black Squirrel, founded in 2020 by former Morgan Stanley executive Paul Donahue, METALLICA, and its in-house leadership team (Tony DiCioccio, Marc Reiter, and Vickie Strate), WG&S founder Eric Wasserman, and artist management firm Q Prime, representing METALLICA, are among the notable contributors.
Medallion plans to utilize this capital to expedite an ambitious technical roadmap, aiming to create new revenue opportunities for artists and immersive experiences for community members during pivotal artist moments.
Since its launch in 2022, Medallion’s technology has empowered artists to establish community-driven digital environments and engage their most dedicated fans, offering exclusive access to releases, merchandise, and experiences. Medallion-powered communities have emerged as the fastest-growing channel for artists, attracting 86% more members than their Facebook groups, 161% more than Reddit, and 206% more than Discord.
The latest addition to Medallion’s product lineup is Digital Deluxe, a chart-eligible format in the U.K., Australia, and Germany. This premium product seamlessly integrates exclusive audio and visual content, providing fans with a more immersive experience related to the artist’s story. For example, Jungle’s recent album achieved #3 on the U.K. charts, partially attributed to the launch of an experiential Digital Deluxe version of the album within their Medallion community. As consumers increasingly embrace physical music formats, Digital Deluxe offers a premium digital alternative with artist-curated content.
“Artists owning direct access to their fans is critical, but they also need more ways to deliver value for it to drive impact,” said Matt Jones, CEO of Medallion.
Despite streaming opening up access to music and social media creating new channels for direct distribution, the full potential of direct artist-to-fan connections has yet to be fully realized. Medallion’s artist-centric approach and focus on digitally native fan experiences aim to usher in a transformative period for artists.
“Artists are starting to understand they are not just content creators but brands themselves, building multimodal businesses beyond simply music and content,” said Rob Hadick, general partner at Dragonfly. “Medallion is building the infrastructure to enable artists to directly interact with their highest intent customers through new and exclusive products and experiences, while simultaneously owning the customer relationship themselves and driving net new revenue opportunities around their IP. We believe this paradigm shift will permeate across the entirety of the creator economy.”
“Artists only have direct relationships with a fraction of their fanbase. Medallion solves this problem by unlocking direct artist-to-fan connection,” said Will Leas at Lightspeed Faction. “The team has a history of building pioneering technology for the world’s biggest artists, and we are thrilled to back them on this journey.”
Medallion is led by technology, e-commerce, and music industry veterans from Songkick, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Grailed, Warner Music Group, and Live Nation. Before the Series A round, the company raised over $9 million in seed funding in 2022 from investors including The Chernin Group, Polygon Ventures, Mike Shinoda, Betaworks, Red Light Ventures, and Noise DAO, along with current Medallion artists iLLENNIUM and Tycho.