Flipagram, a popular mobile app that sets music to short photo-video segments — think if Instagram and YouTube had a baby — announced on Thursday it has secured a comprehensive set of licensing deals with major and indie labels, distributors and publishers. Calling it a “sweeping series of global licensing deals,” Flipagram now has agreements with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music, Merlin, The Orchard, and publishers including Sony/ATV Music, Universal and BMG.
“With these deals, our users get unprecedented access to a comprehensive catalog of popular, classic and indie song clips to use as the soundtrack to their Flipagram stories,” said Farhad Mohit, founder and CEO of Flipagram. “And our music partners benefit from having their music featured and available for purchase in the tens of millions of Flipagrams being created and shared each month worldwide.”
The startup also announced it has raised $70 million from investors in a latest round of financing, led by Sequoia and joined by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Index Ventures. Sequoia’s Michael Moritz and KKPCB’s John Doer have joined Flipagram’s board of directors.
Flipagram is based in Los Angeles and has about 60 employees. The company told Techcrunch that it amassed 30 million users by the end of 2014, and regularly touts “tens of millions” of monthly users of the app, which is available for iOS, Android, Windows and Amazon. Like other social apps, users can like, comment on and “reflip” the flips. iTunes links are included so that songs can be purchased, and there are also links to Spotify.
