Kickstarter’s first acquisition: Music fan community Drip snapped up 1 day before closure

Kickstarter just announced its first ever acquisition — the crowdfunding company is snapping up music-subscription service and fan community Drip for an undisclosed amount.

Drip was founded in 2012 as a service that connects music fans with indie labels, including Domino Records, Fool’s Gold, and Ghostly International. However, Drip’s founders announced back in February that it was to close down on March 18, citing a number of reasons — none of which sounded particularly insurmountable. However, one day before Drip was due to close down, Kickstarter has emerged to save the day.

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“Like Kickstarter, artists on Drip enjoy closer connections to the fans who help sustain their work,” said Kickstarter in a blog post. “And fans enjoy early access to new releases, rare tracks, unique experiences, visual art, exclusive video, writing, and beyond.

“Many of us at Kickstarter have admired Drip over the years. At heart, we’ve been on similar paths. Strengthening the bonds between artists and audiences, and fostering the conditions for a more vibrant creative culture is at the core of our work at Kickstarter, too.”

Kickstarter said that not a great deal will change for the time being, though it’s “excited to discover where it leads.” Drip cofounder Miguel Senquiz will join the Kickstarter team as a result of this acquisition, while his cofounder Sam Valenti IV — the same man who founded electronic label Ghostly International — presumably will part ways.

So this is more than a stay of execution, it seems — Drip will continue to connect music fans with their labels and artists well into the future.

Founded in 2009, Kickstarter has emerged as the poster child for crowdfunding, having facilitated campaigns to the tune of $2 billion, with more than 10 million people plowing their cash into weird and wacky initiatives. The New York-based company also has a “F**k the monoculture” philosophy, where it claims to put cultural ideology above profits — and saving a little startup that focused on connecting fans with indie music seems entirely aligned with that philosophy.