Published November 20th 2015
New unexpected player in music streams
Earlier this month, the world was wondering why music mogul Troy Carter was joining the board of a file sharing company. Dutch company WeTransfer offer a platform that allows people to share large files up to 2 GB for free. They are currently handling a billion transfers a year.
Arts and advertising
WeTransfer has always offered support to graphic artists. While you are up- or downloading your file, you’ll get to see a range of wall papers, changing every 45 seconds. Some are adverts, but others are digital art created by designers, illustrators and animators worldwide.
Also, the premium, paid version of their services, has most of its subscribers working in film and video. So, with so many creatives tied to the company, it’s only logical to embark upon the competitive market of music streams.
Loving music and hits; website hits
The company has strong ties to music. One of its founders originally was a music blogger and used his connections with musicians to have WeTransfer act as a download platform for music, videos and mixtapes. Prince and Disclosure, for instance, have already used WeTransfer for their releases in the past.
In an attempt to stay more relevant than their competitors, such as Dropbox, they now want to offer more music for streaming. They’re not really in it for the money, but it is about drawing more traffic to their service and putting them on the map for the US, which is increasingly growing interest in the company.
Financial injection
Earlier this year, the company has raised $25 million from Highland Capital Partners to push growth even further, valuing WeTransfer at $100 million. The company has been profitable for two years, making their money on advertisement and selling their premium service.
With their branch out to music streaming, they don’t see themselves go head to head with Apple Music or Spotify, as they don’t plan on releasing full albums. Their plans touch more base with services, such as SoundCloud, YouTube and Vevo.
Redesigned platform to launch new service
With Troy Carter on their side, WeTransfer hopes to convince big artists to release or preview special or rough mixes, or music videos. However, in collaboration with the artist, many types of promotions are possible. Bonnie McKee got her own game on WeTransfer to promote her music.
Troy Carter is highly involved in a few tech companies, linking them (further) to music. He has presented the first concepts yesterday at his SMASHD LABS Demo Day. WeTransfer have introduced a redesign of their platform to incorporate their own music player at the event.
