Sequoia Capital Invests $10 Million in Online Concert Promoter Songkick

Songkick.com Inc., a provider of concert information, received a $10 million investment from venture firm Sequoia Capital, three months after the service became available on Spotify Ltd.

Greg McAdoo, a partner at Menlo Park, California-based Sequoia, joined closely held Songkick’s board, Ian Hogarth, co- founder and chief executive officer, said today in an interview.

The investment, Songkick’s third round of funding, will be used for product innovation and hiring, Hogarth, 30, said. Songkick averages 5 million monthly users, behind only Live Nation Entertainment Inc. (LYV)’s Ticketmaster in concert information, he said. After creating a profile and either entering bands manually or allowing software to scan music collections, users are alerted before their favorite bands come to town.

“This is my first company,” Hogarth said. “It’s incredibly helpful to have people around you who have done it before and have operational experience.”

The service consolidates concert listings from Ticketmaster, Anschutz Entertainment Group and other promoters and provides alerts of shows to users. Songkick is paid referral fees when users buy tickets to shows.

After signing up for Songkick, which is a free service, users usually buy tickets to double the number of shows, Hogarth said, citing internal data.

“A big opportunity exists to improve the concert-going experience for both artists and fans,” McAdoo said in an e- mailed statement. “Songkick is just getting started and we share their long-term vision for innovating in the music industry.”

First on Spotify

Traffic has been climbing since London-based Songkick added a program on Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s App Store, which was downloaded 100,000 times in the 10 days after its release, and being one of the first programs to work on Spotify’s music service.

“It’s a good start,” said Hogarth, who has a master’s degree in machine learning from Cambridge University. “We’re getting to a meaningful level of scale where the audience on Songkick is big enough for more disruptive innovation.”

After Cambridge, Hogarth worked at Bain & Co. in Singapore, where he also began DJ-ing hip-hop, funk, drum & bass and grime shows. He left Bain to start Songkick in 2007 with Michelle You, chief product officer, and Pete Smith, chief operating officer.

“Concerts shouldn’t be a niche activity, where someone goes once a year to see a band,” Hogarth said. “It should be a regular activity in their lives.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net