Max is a Dallas, TX-based music technology company that operates the SET.Live platform to enable artists to engage directly with fans during live shows and create sponsorable assets for brands. The platform powers brand-music partnerships with clients including Ford, UScellular, McDonald’s, AARP, Gildan, and Elavon, and supports a growing portfolio of 1,000+ artists such as Kane Brown, Alan Jackson, Jon Batiste, Leela James, AJR, and others. Max uses data-driven marketing automation to better serve brands, artists, and music fans. The company plans to use the Series B funding for continued development of SET.Live and to expand its sales and marketing teams. Max is led by CEO and founder Nathan Hanks and recently expanded its board with Carl Sparks of Interlock and Elizabeth Brooks of Better Angels Ventures. Music Audience Exchange (MAX) is a Dallas-based company founded by George Howard and Nathan Hanks in 2014 that builds a platform to pair brands with artists who haven’t yet broken into the mainstream. Using tools derived from Hanks’ work at ReachLocal, MAX identifies more than 200 demographic categories of fans for 2.4 million musicians across 765 genres. The company matches a brand’s target audience and budget to artists and negotiates sponsorships that can include commercial exposure in ads, backing tours, and guaranteed song rotations. MAX says the deals are only signed when artists agree to the terms; beneficiaries include NEEDTOBREATHE, Leela James, Aaron Watson and La Maquinaria Norteña. Founders position the product as a way to put more money into artists’ pockets and as a new era of patronage where brands get behind creators. Leadership also sees the approach applying beyond musicians to other influencers such as YouTube creators and actors. financially, MAX has recently raised new capital to scale its platform and business development.

Total raised

$6M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Mar 2017