History
The startup was founded in Los Angeles in 2015 by Australian musicians Josh Simons and Barry Palmer of Hunters & Collectors.[4] According to The Australian Financial Review, the company received seed funding from Nick Feldman of British band Wang Chung.[5] Apple named the app in its "Best of 2017" list.[6]
In August 2019, the company launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on Wefunder which saw the company reach their minimum fund-raising target in the first hour.[7] In a follow-on oversubscribed crowdfunding round, the company raised the maximum permitted in a 12-month window at the time, with over 2,000 investors.[8] Vampr would also be the first company in the world to offer investors an NFT as a perk in a Reg CF funding round.[9]
The company later launched Vampr Publishing in 2020, a free music sync representation solution for all users, in addition to Vampr Distribution, a tiered music distribution solution which also comes bundled with the premium Vampr Pro subscription service.[10]
In September 2021, the company announced a milestone of one million users.[11]
In March 2022, with over 7 million professional connections brokered on the platform worldwide, Fast Company inducted Vampr into their Most Innovative Companies list.[12] Later that year Google Play would spotlight Vampr in their Top 150 apps in the United States.[13]
In April 2022, the company launched Vampr Academy, an edtech streaming solution for artists, allowing users to watch video lessons taught by industry experts.[14] In November 2022, the company announced a strategic investment from Downtown Music which coincided with the launch of Vampr Marketing, a promotional advertising solution which enables artists to drive traffic to their music releases on premium websites such as Billboard, Forbes, GQ Magazine and Rolling Stone.[15]
In February 2023, it was announced Vampr had been acquired by the Sydney-headquartered music credits database, Jaxsta,[16] later rebranded as Vinyl Group.[17]
