Last Monday, I stumbled upon Walter the Producer, an indie musician based in Boston. His music, not featured on any of the playlists I follow, garners less than 150,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. If it weren’t for the moment I decided to Shazam his song while I was 2,000 miles away from home in a brewery in Phoenix, I might never have discovered him.
Discovering new music has become somewhat of a game, with Walter the Producer even poking fun at this trend in his Spotify artist bio: “If you gatekeep me, I will hunt you down.” Traditionally, deep-pocketed artists have held an advantage over independent musicians in terms of promotion. However, recent algorithm changes at Spotify, the emergence of viral TikTok songs, and strategic shifts at outlets like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone have made it increasingly challenging for independent artists to gain visibility.
Yet, it’s now easier than ever to create music, a dynamic that inspired the founders of Groover. Launched in 2018, this Paris-based startup provides a platform for independent artists to promote themselves by submitting music to individual curators, who offer feedback and amplify tracks they deem noteworthy. Romain Palmieri, co-founder and CEO of Groover, explained that he and his co-founders established the company to address the promotion challenges they encountered throughout their music careers.
Palmieri stated, “Independent artists have more access to music creation, which is great and fosters creativity, but the main challenge lies in how to promote the music and get heard by the right people, receiving appropriate curation in the process.” He added, “We wanted to build something that could solve this.”
Recently, Groover secured an $8 million Series A round led by OneRagtime, Techmind, Trind, and Mozza Angels. Palmieri disclosed that the company intends to utilize the funding to further expand into the U.S., its largest market, and to introduce new features for artists, including coaching and additional promotion resources.
