If there is one thing that sets Austin apart, it’s the music scene. After all, we are the “Live Music Capital of the World." Obviously the city has much more to offer, like a bustling startup scene and a growing film industry. But music is what put us on the map. Music festivals in Austin frequently bring in fans and artists from around the world. JamFeed co-founders Cameron and Tyler Gibson, who also happen to be brothers, were born and raised here and for them, it’s the perfect place to found their startup.
Gibson describes JamFeed as “a personalized music app that keeps fans up-to-date on their favorite artists, bands, and festivals.”
Gibson says younger brother Tyler originally thought of the idea of making an app that would be “Team Stream for music”. If you’re unfamiliar with Team Stream, it is BleacherReport.com’s incredibly popular app that keeps users informed on all of the latest sports news. It’s no surprise that Cameron claims "music, sports, and business” as his top three passions in life.
JamFeed lets music fans follow tour dates, festivals, songs, albums, and artists, delivering breaking news and updates via push notifications. After all, “what's more convenient and effective than a push notification straight to your smart phone?" asks Gibson.
The app also provides artists with a platform to communicate with their fan base, giving them the ability to send push notifications and announcements directly to their fans.
The Gibson brothers launched the app at ACL festival in 2014 but ran into problems due to a lack of reliable cell phone service at the festival.
But, the app is now gaining some traction in the investor community. So far, they have received $300,000 in funding out of a $400,000 bridge financing round. Once that number is met, they will be looking for a larger Seed or Series A round. Gibson’s vision for the future of JamFeed should pique the interest of many prospective investors.
Presently, he has employees monitoring and aggregating news to push to the end users but a few years from now he expects they will be creating most of their own content. Gibson is also working with various artist managers and festival companies to form partnerships. "Ultimately, we want to be giving users an experience that's new and different every day... and give artists a platform that allows them to truly engage and connect with their fans at a high level.”