Have you ever walked by someone jamming to a tune and wondered what they were listening to? Or questioned what Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott listen to during pregame warm-ups? Former NFL player Jason Fox did too, so he launched EarBuds.
Austin-based EarBuds is an app where users — ranging from ordinary people to celebrities and famous athletes — can livestream music and share playlists with friends and followers all in real time. On Thursday, the music tech startup announced it raised a $3 million Series A round led by Ecliptic Capital.
Here’s how EarBuds works. After users download the app, they sync it with a paid streaming service like Spotify or Apple Music. Then, they follow friends or celebrities and share tunes in real time or discover previously created soundtracks, including the songs Mahomes listened to before the Super Bowl.
“We are a company that’s on a mission to bring people together through music and music sharing,” Chris Gannett, president of EarBuds, told Built In. “... What we do is enable anyone, regardless of their streaming music service subscription, to listen to music together in real time.”
EarBuds’ app is available on Android or Apple devices and has current partnerships with Spotify and Apple Music. The app will launch a partnership with Pandora and Amazon Music later this year, giving EarBuds access to a large portion of the world’s music subscribers, Gannett said.
With the fresh capital, EarBuds plans to add more emerging to mid-level artists and musicians with a large fan base to the app. Gannett said he wants to create a space for new artists to build their businesses.
Hiring is also on the horizon. EarBuds plans to grow its six-person team and is actively hiring for a product designer and Android developer. The startup also recently added former Apple managers David Ransom and Sean Moubry to its team.
Since launching in 2019, EarBuds has raised approximately $6 million with famous investors including Mahomes and NFL quarterback Baker Mayfield. EarBuds was also part of the 2020 Techstars Austin accelerator class.
