Scratch Music Group Raises $3.3 Million; Launches Scratch Weddings
NEW YORK, July 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Scratch Music Group, a fast growing music and technology company, has closed a $3.3 million round of growth financing. Contour Venture Partners led the round with additional funding from the New York City Investment Fund (NYCIF) and angel investors Jason Finger and Todd Arky, of SeamlessWeb, and Jacob Pechenik, co-founder and CEO of YellowJacket Software.
Over its 10-year history, Scratch Music Group has become the definitive brand and service provider in the DJ space. At its core is the largest team of highly screened, trained and tested marquee DJs – representing over 700 DJs across the country. Through its diverse and proprietary team of DJ professionals, turnkey service delivery operation, established brand and proven results, the company has become the nation's largest corporate DJ solutions company and DJ learning center. To date, Scratch has provided DJs for more than 15,000 events and over 50 national tours for top brands including MTV, Saks, Vans, Bloomingdale's, ESPN, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Ann Taylor, Pepsi, H&M, W Hotels and many more. The company has been exhibiting high double digit annual growth without any outside investment since inception.
Over the past year, Scratch has expanded its services into the wedding market. Scratch Weddings is the first company to offer couples a unique mix of white-glove customer service, highly personalized music choices, a talent roster of culturally diverse, highly talented marquee DJs, social network-enabled playlist software and a host of quality guarantees to eliminate the many risks traditionally associated with hiring a wedding DJ. Scratch plans to use the proceeds of this financing to fund the growth of Scratch Weddings within the multibillion-dollar U.S. wedding music market as well as to fund the continued expansion of its existing Scratch DJ Academy, Scratch Events and Scratch Software businesses.
"We have built a powerful brand in DJ education and entertainment. We are excited to be working closely with Contour to leverage this unique asset, experience and deep DJ talent base across the large wedding market where the quality of talent and service does not currently match the unique needs of the couple on one of their most important days," said Rob Principe, CEO and founder of Scratch Music Group.
Since entering the wedding market, Scratch Weddings has earned The Knot's coveted "Best of Weddings" award, WeddingWire's "Bride's Choice" award, "Best of New York Weddings" from New York Magazine and top ratings in client reviews on Yelp. The company has also secured preferred and exclusive partnerships with leading national hotels, event venues, and caterers.
"Scratch Music Group has a world-class management team combined with a powerful brand with a deep-rooted musical heritage. We are excited by the opportunity to work with the company to scale across the large and highly fragmented wedding music market via Scratch's high quality technology-enabled service," said Matt Gorin, co-managing partner and co-founder of Contour Venture Partners.
Further expanding its brand reach and market position, Scratch Music Group recently released its first software product, Scratch DJ Academy MIX! This product helps aspiring DJs and music enthusiasts analyze their digital music, mix their playlists, and learn DJ basics. Scratch DJ Academy MIX! is currently being sold in more than 500 Best Buy stores nationwide.
As a result of its growth, Scratch Music Group recently moved its corporate headquarters to the iconic Village Voice building in Manhattan's East Village. Scratch also has offices in Miami and Los Angeles.
ABOUT SCRATCH MUSIC GROUP
Based in New York City, Scratch Music Group is a venture-backed, high growth music and technology company. Since its founding in 2002, Scratch has built the first and largest national team of heavily screened marquee DJs (700+ members), which it utilizes for thousands of weddings, corporate events, tours, and music festivals each year. Scratch works closely with leading brands including MTV, Saks, Vans, Bloomingdale's, ESPN, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Ann Taylor, Pepsi, Sandals Beach Resorts, W Hotels and many more. The company also runs the Scratch DJ Academy - the world's first and leading DJ and music production learning center co-developed with Jam Master Jay of Run DMC, with locations in NYC, Miami, and LA. Scratch Music Group has booked DJs for over 15,000 events and entertained over six million guests.
ABOUT CONTOUR VENTURE PARTNERS
Contour Venture Partners is a New York based early stage venture capital firm. Contour invests in companies that provide innovative technology enhanced products and services into the financial services, digital media and internet sectors. Contour partners with passionate entrepreneurs and management teams to build great businesses that seek to ultimately transform their industries.
SOURCE Scratch Music Group
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