Chicagoans’ Black-owned music marketing platform raises $4 million to fund music app

A Black-owned music marketing platform — co-founded in part by two Chicago natives — aims to create a lane for independent artists.

Music Breakr, an app bridging the gap between DJs and creatives who aim to have their music heard, continues to foster collaborations with about 50,000 creators across 133 countries, the group said in a press release.

The quartet — Ameer Brown, Anthony Brown, and Chicagoans Dan Ware and Rotimi Omosheyin — met as students at Florida A&M University and became Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity brothers, founding Music Breakr in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic as a pivot from party promotions.

“We started doing day parties, which was a multi-city tour, and we noticed that independent artists had trouble getting in touch with DJs to get their music played at the clubs,” said Rotimi Omosheyin, Music Breakr CMO. “If you’re ever in that environment, there’s always independent artists with a CD, or flash drive, and $50 in their pocket running up on a DJ like: ‘Yo, I’m trying to get my music played.’ Ameer, who ended up going to work at Adobe, came back to us and he’s like: ‘Yo, there’s definitely a way that we could put some technology in the middle and make this a seamless process for independent artists.’”

Music Breakr

While Music Breakr raised $4 million in seed money to fund their endeavors, they lined up an impressive group of investors including hip-hop artist Nas, DAZN chairman Kevin Mayer, and retired NBA All-Star Baron Davis, among others.

The group has partnered with concert series Rolling Loud Miami 2021, where the artist with the best song will have the chance to perform with headliners Travis Scott, Post Malone and A$AP Rocky.

“It was just networking, and people were putting us in contact with these different investors that were interested in the platform,” said Omosheyin, a Morgan Park High School alumnus. “I’ve become addicted to these ‘magical moments’ that happen on Breakr. And we’ve always felt for Breakr to really work, we have to break in artists. What’s the epitome of breaking the artist or providing a magical moment and being able to put them on stage? … That’s the Grammys for an independent artist.

“For us being able to come together with Rolling Loud builds the narrative that we’re here for indie artists; we’re here to provide these moments, and provide access for them.”