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Vinyl Group

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Australian music technology company

Vinyl Group Ltd
Company typePublic
Traded asASX: VNL
IndustryMusic technology
Founded2023
HeadquartersSouth Yarra, Melbourne, Australia
Key people
ProductsVampr, Jaxsta, Vinyl.com, Serenade, The Brag Media, Mediaweek
Revenue$9.5 million (2023, pro forma)
Total assets$2.901 million (March 2024)
Number of employees22
Websitevinyl.group

Vinyl Group Ltd is an Australian music technology company. It is traded on the Australian Securities Exchange. Its subsidiaries are Jaxsta (a music credit database), Vampr (a music networking platform), Vinyl.com (an online record store), The Brag Media (a publishing and events business), Mediaweek (a trade media publication that reports on the business of media in Australia) and Serenade (a Web3 pioneer of physical and digital collectibles).

History

Vinyl Group started as Jaxsta which was listed as a public company on the ASX on December 28, 2018.

In February 2023, the company announced it would acquire Vampr, a music networking platform that connects musicians and industry professionals. The acquisition was completed in June 2023. Vampr’s founder and CEO Josh Simons initially joined Jaxsta as Chief Strategy Officer and was subsequently appointed CEO on 29 June 2023.

Jaxsta launched Vinyl.com in May 2023, offering a catalog of vinyl records across all genres with verified creative contributions metadata on every album.

Jaxsta rebranded as Vinyl Group Ltd in December 2023 to better reflect its expanded operations.

In January 2024, Vinyl Group completed the acquisition of The Brag Media, a publishing and events business with about 10 million monthly active users (MAUs) across its brands, significantly enhancing Vinyl Group's reach and sales opportunities. The acquisition deal was valued at $8 million and was supported by an $11 million funding facility.

In August 2024, Vinyl Group announced it would acquire media and marketing trade publication Mediaweek for $500,000 in cash and $500,000 in shares. In September 2024, the company acquired Funkified Entertainment Pty Ltd, bringing The Brag Media events in-house through a deal valued at up to $2.5 million, consisting of both cash and scrip. Simultaneously, it completed an all-scrip acquisition for 100% of the assets of Serenade, a UK-based digital collectibles startup, including the shares of its UK subsidiary.

Operations

Vinyl Group Ltd focuses on leveraging technology to enhance music networking and collaboration. The company's portfolio includes Vampr, a platform for music professionals to connect and collaborate, Jaxsta, a database of official music credits, and Vinyl.com, a chart-accredited record store.

Vampr

Vampr is a social-professional network and talent marketplace, helping creatives in over 180 countries find collaborators and monetize their work. The platform has introduced features like Credits and Verification, integrating Jaxsta Creator features into Vampr Pro subscriptions.

Jaxsta

Jaxsta is a database of official music credits, offering subscription, API, and freemium access. It supports rights holders with recording matching, achieving a 97% match rate. The database contains over 330 million official, deep-linked music credits across 105 million pages.

Vinyl.com

Vinyl.com is an online record store which launched in 2023. It allows music fans to buy records and explore liner notes, offering over 50,000 records across all genres. The platform is powered by Jaxsta Official Music Credits.

Serenade

Serenade produces physical and digital collectables that have served over 200 artists worldwide including Liam and Noel Gallagher, Muse, Sum 41, Twenty One Pilots and Thirty Seconds to Mars. Their Smart Formats combine the use of NFC and NFT technologies.

Mediaweek

Mediaweek is an online trade website serving the Australian media industry. It provides news regarding the Australian newspaper, television, radio, magazine and outdoor advertising industries.

The Brag Media

The Brag Media is a publishing and events business established by Luke Girgis in early 2017 as Seventh Street Media Pty Ltd, with the acquisition of the privately-owned music publications, Tone Deaf, The Brag, and J Play. Other brands owned or operated by Seventh Street Media, were The Industry Observer, Gig Guide, The Music Network, IndieWire, Variety Australia, Epic Digital (founded in 2019), Funimation, Enthusiast Gaming and HypeBeast.

The Brag Media is a publishing and events company with a focus on music. As of 2024 The Brag Media represents iconic titles like Rolling Stone Australia, The Music Network, Variety, and Billboard, and reaches over 30% of the Australian population each month and produces events like the Rolling Stone Awards.

In June 2024, after being acquired by the Vinyl Group, Girgis left the business, and Jessica Hunter was appointed head of The Brag Media. Former senior contributor Lars Brandle was appointed head of content.

Brag brands: history

Tone Deaf was established in 2009 by Nicholas Jones, and soon became a major online music magazine, with a readership of more than 400,000. It covers contemporary music of many genres, and includes news, interviews, reviews, and other feature articles. The title was acquired by Seventh Street Media in January 2017, along with The Brag (formerly published by Furst Media) and J Play. In 2019, Tone Deaf was, according to B&T Magazine, "the number one music publisher in Australia, reaching 5.43 million Australians per week".

The Music Network, founded as a print magazine in 1994, went fully online in 2013. It changed hands once in 2009 and again in 2017, when it was acquired by Jake Challenor, who served as its publisher and editor. In February 2022, The Brag Media purchased TMN, with Challenor joining The Brag Media as executive editor, B2B. In February 2023 Challenor departed Brag and set up a new PR agency, Sound Story.

J Play was a B2B resource showcasing and tracking artists and songs played on Triple J radio. Launched in 2006 by Paul Stipack, it created a large archive of statistics of every song played by Triple j over 12 years. It was possible to see an artist's trajectory from their first airing to full rotation. Owing to changes in the music industry, including the need to track many other sources, such as Spotify, and other tools, such as Shazam, Radiomonitor, and AirCheck, its usefulness diminished, and it ceased operation in January 2019. The Brag Media retained the J Play database of 40,000 songs, 11,000 artists, and 15,000 playlists.

The Industry Observer, launched in 2017, was a trade magazine for the music industry. It was merged into The Music Network in July 2022.

Financial performance

For the quarter ending March 31, 2024, Vinyl Group reported a revenue increase of 218% quarter-over-quarter to $1.86 million, partly due to the integration of The Brag Media. As of March 31, 2024, the company had $2.901 million in cash and cash equivalents. The company aims to achieve profitability through synergies and efficiencies from its acquisitions.

Leadership changes

On April 28, 2022, it was announced that Jaxsta founder Jacqui Louez Schoorl would step down as CEO and former Chief Marketing Officer Beth Appleton would be Jaxsta's new CEO. The Music Network reported that "the change will allow Louez Schoorl to focus on the Jaxsta product and our community and creative relationships". Before joining Jaxsta in July 2021, Appleton had been the Senior Vice President Marketing Australasia at Warner Music Australia.

Josh Simons, founder and CEO of Vampr, and former indie-rock musician with his band Buchanan, was appointed CEO and succeeded Appleton on 29 June 2023.

Board composition

Linda Jenkinson is the Chairperson of the board for Vinyl Group. She is also a recipient of the New Zealand Women of Influence Awards, a former director of Air New Zealand (NZE: AIR) and the third women to list a company on the NASDAQ.

Ben Katovsky, a non-executive director, is the CEO of Hipgnosis Song Management, responsible for overseeing the operations and strategy of the Hipgnosis Songs Fund and other related entities.

Steve Gledden, Managing Partner of Straight Bat Private Equity, and Ken Gaunt, Director of Sydney Seaplanes, also serve as non-executive directors, while CEO Simons was appointed to the Board as the sole Executive Director on 16 May 2024.

Notable shareholders

The company has received substantial investment from music licensing company Songtradr, who first invested in 2020 and have steadily increased their holding over time to become a significant shareholder.

Billionaire, founder and CEO of WiseTech Global (ASX: WTC), Richard White, is currently the largest shareholder. According to company disclosure in June 2024, Robert Millner, Chairman of Soul Patts (ASX: SOL), also participated in the company's latest securities offering.

References

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  2. ^ "Quarterly Activities Report Q3 FY23/24" (PDF). Vinyl Group Ltd. 24 April 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
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  42. Brandle, Lars (28 April 2022). "Jaxsta Promotes Beth Appleton to CEO". Billboard. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
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  45. "Linda Jenkinson Non-Executive Chairman" (PDF) (Press release). MedAdvisor. 1 January 2024. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
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