Independent Music Community & Marketplace mTraks Secures $550,000 in Additional Funding

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--mTraks, Inc. (www.mtraks.com), an innovative social music community and digital music marketplace, has closed $550,000 in financing from a consortium of private angel investors.

The funding comes on the heels of the company’s one-year anniversary and growth in the number of total music tracks to one million, covering genres as varied as jazz, metal, alternative, classical and world music. Since mTraks’ inception in 2007, the community has attracted more than 100,000 visitors per month and content from more than 5,500 independent labels.

“Our new round of financing opens the door for greater development of the mTraks experience including exploration of increased artist-direct functionality,” said mTraks founder and CEO, Dey Martin. “Our goal is to give both signed and unsigned artists the opportunity to sell their songs directly on our site and reap one of the industry’s highest revenue shares.”

Unsigned bands and artists participating on mTraks have the ability to create their own free customized mini web pages with bios, pictures, concert dates and free music samples that fuel the growth of the community’s diverse music catalog. mTraks also serves as a strong promotional tool for emerging artists allowing them to further encourage the sale and discovery of their independent music all while being directly alongside signed acts from thousands of record labels. Coming this summer unsigned bands on mTraks will have the added benefit of direct to consumer music sales and a unique and profitable affiliate marketing program.

mTraks eclectic music store offers DRM-free MP3 tracks and a highly equitable revenue share model for artists. The community hosts a completely open catalog of music that allows unregistered web visitors to browse and purchase music one song at a time, or join a monthly subscription plan to buy tunes at a reduced bulk rate.

Through exclusive licensing partnerships, mTraks offers both mainstream and hard-to-find tracks via a hybrid pricing model, allowing music fans the complete freedom of choice for every song purchase. Music can be bought a la carte through individual checkout, or via monthly subscription plans starting at $9.99 per month. mTraks also offers 30 free downloads with each trial subscription just to try their service. All music on mTraks is offered in unrestricted near CD-quality 192kbps variable birtate stereo MP3.

Every mTraks download works with the Apple iPod™, Zune® and all MP3-compatible audio players.

About mTraks

mTraks was created “by” musicians “for” musicians and was designed from the beginning to establish an independent-minded music community of artists and labels committed to keeping the spirit of independent music alive through a retail environment offering high-quality, affordable music. Through exclusive licensing partnerships and a strong passion for music promotion and discovery, mTraks gives emerging artists and labels a fair trade distribution channel where both signed and unsigned music acts co-exist. The community aspect of mTraks allows bands to create free customized ‘mini web pages’ with bios, pictures, concert dates, music samples and soon even video. Music fans can create free ‘Listener’ accounts where they can sample and purchase songs without the use of a downloaded media player and stay in touch with their favorite bands and online friends.