Indie Music Subscription Service Drip Rescued By Kickstarter

At the eleventh hour, Drip—the forward-thinking music subscription service that was supposed to cease operations—has been thrown a lifeline by Kickstarter. A month ago, the founders of the platform announced that they would be closing down the service on March 18. Today that all changed with the revelation that they will instead be joining forces with crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. Drip co-founder Miguel Senquiz will remain on the team to help manage the transition. This is Kickstarter's first major acquisition, and an intriguing sign as to how the company intends to grow.

When it was launched in 2012 by Senquiz and Ghostly International founder Sam Valenti, Drip.fm was positioned as a more personalized and artist-friendly take on larger subscription-based streaming services. Users paid monthly or yearly fees to subscribe to individual labels and artists; in return, they received exclusive high quality content, as well as reduced-cost tickets to events, and even early access to vinyl-only releases.

The service attracted a fairly diverse array of content providers, from labels like Sub Pop to Fools Gold, but was still a much more curated experience than something like Spotify. The goal according to its founders wasalways about making it easier for customers to directly financially support music that they were fans of, which makes it a logical fit for Kickstarter's mandate.

"Art and music are an essential part of life and we started Drip with the belief that putting more agency into artists' hands is a move towards a more diverse and empowered society," wrote Valenti in a blog post today announcing the decision. "We are proud Drip will inform the mission at one of the most respected companies in artistic support.

Benjamin Boles is on Twitter.