The white-label platform where artists own their fan communities - not the algorithm.
Above: The Medallion wordmark. The four-year-old New York startup, led by former Songkick CEO Matt Jones, has raised $22.7M to give recording artists a digital home of their own.
For two decades the music business optimized for reach. Streaming turned every listener into a data point and every artist into a line on a playlist. Medallion, a New York company that began operating in early 2022, is built around a quieter idea: the relationship that matters most is not with the millions who half-listen, but with the few thousand who would follow an artist anywhere.
Those people have a name now - superfans - and in 2024 the industry, from major labels to analysts at Goldman Sachs, named them a priority. Medallion got there first. Its platform gives a recording artist a dedicated digital hub: a branded space to promote album releases, tour dates and merch drops, sell digital collectibles, share exclusive content, and hand their most devoted fans access to experiences they cannot get anywhere else.
The distinction from a social feed is the whole point. A feed is engineered to move a fan past their favorite artist toward the next thing. A Medallion community is engineered to keep them inside one artist's world. It is white-label by design, meaning the artist - not Medallion - controls the color theme, the branding, the data and the commerce.
That framing has drawn a striking roster and an even more striking cap table. Roughly 20 artists were live as of early 2024, among them Jungle, Disclosure, Greta Van Fleet, Illenium, Tiga, Mt. Joy, Tycho, My Morning Jacket, Girl in Red, Santigold and Sigur Ros. The backers include Dragonfly, Lightspeed Faction, The Chernin Group, Coinbase Ventures - and Metallica, through the band's Black Squirrel Partners fund.
Matt Jones ran Songkick, the Warner-owned concert-discovery service, before starting Medallion. He watched artists assemble enormous followings on platforms whose rules could change overnight - a tweak to an algorithm, and a carefully built audience simply stops seeing the posts. During 2021 it became clear to him that more artists than ever wanted to go direct-to-consumer with their content and products. Medallion is the answer to that gap.
The problem it solves is ownership. On most platforms, the artist rents reach. On Medallion, the artist owns the home: the brand, the fan data, the relationship and the storefront. And when a dedicated hub replaces a rented feed, the fans respond - Medallion's communities grew markedly faster than the same artists' channels elsewhere.
“Digital Deluxe is a format built for the superfan - someone who wants to go deeper into the artist versus get punted to other content by playlists or discovery surfaces.”
Matt Jones, CEOA white-label digital hub where artists promote releases, tour dates and merch, share exclusive content, and give superfans access to drops and experiences under their own branding.
A modern deluxe album: a digital release with an embedded music player plus downloadable audio, imagery and video, sold direct to fans - first in the UK, Australia and Germany.
Blockchain-based collectibles like poster bundles and trading cards. Fans sign in with an email or a wallet (Rainbow, Coinbase, WalletConnect) - the crypto is optional plumbing, not the pitch.
Tools to sell physical merchandise and one-of-a-kind experiences directly to community members, folding into an artist's existing e-commerce stack.
Medallion runs a B2B platform model. It is free for an artist to launch a branded community; the company earns a share of what fans buy through the platform - digital collectibles, Digital Deluxe albums, merch and experiences. Its revenue scales only when artists succeed at selling to their superfans, which keeps the incentives pointed the same direction.
That places Medallion inside the fast-growing direct-to-fan and creator-economy market, competing for artists' attention against fan platforms such as Patreon, Discord, Bandcamp and Laylo, label-run superfan apps, and the general social networks - Instagram, Facebook Groups, Reddit - that artists lean on today.
Its edge is the white-label, artist-owned model paired with a team of operators who have shipped at scale. The founding group is drawn from Songkick, Spotify, Instagram, YouTube, Grailed, Warner Music Group and Live Nation - a roster of music, tech and e-commerce veterans rather than crypto tourists. Several of Medallion's own artists, including Illenium, Tycho, Mt. Joy and Jungle, are also investors, keeping the roadmap tied to real artist needs.
Where it fits in the market is as infrastructure: the layer between an artist and their most valuable fans, at the exact moment the industry decided that layer was worth fighting over.
Estimated annual revenue ~$2M · ~19 employees · Headquartered at 450 Broadway, New York
Around 20 artists were building communities on Medallion as of early 2024 - a spread that runs from ambient and post-rock to arena electronic and rock.
| Round | Amount | Date | Lead / notable investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | $9M | May 2022 | The Chernin Group (lead), Betaworks, Polygon Ventures, Mike Shinoda, Illenium, Tycho |
| Series A | $13.7M | Dec 2023 | Dragonfly & Lightspeed Faction (co-leads), Coinbase Ventures, The Chernin Group, Black Squirrel Partners (Metallica), Third Prime, Zeal Capital |
“Our priority is to create great artist-to-fan experiences. That focus has piqued the interest of the broader music industry, and we're excited to work more deeply together with other industry players as we grow this year.”
Matt Jones, CEOFormer Songkick CEO Matt Jones sees more artists than ever wanting to go direct-to-consumer, and starts building Medallion.
Medallion begins operating in early 2022 and raises over $9M led by The Chernin Group, with backers including Betaworks, Mike Shinoda and artist-investors.
Medallion introduces its Digital Deluxe album format and closes a $13.7M Series A co-led by Dragonfly and Lightspeed Faction.
As the industry names superfans a priority, Medallion powers ~20 artist communities and expands Digital Deluxe to the UK, Australia and Germany.
“The full potential of direct artist-to-fan connections has not been realized.”
“Track your artists, shows and listening, all in one place.” - the platform's own promise to fans.
CEO Matt Jones previously ran Songkick, the Warner-owned concert-discovery service.
Metallica invested through their Black Squirrel Partners fund - a legacy metal band backing a music-tech startup.
Fans can join with just an email; the underlying blockchain stays invisible to anyone who never wants a wallet.
Medallion provides a white-label platform where recording artists build their own branded fan communities - promoting releases, selling digital collectibles and Digital Deluxe albums, sharing exclusive content, and giving superfans access to drops and experiences.
It was founded by Matt Jones, the former CEO of Warner-owned Songkick, and is headquartered in New York City. It launched in 2022.
About $22.7M total - a $9M seed round in 2022 and a $13.7M Series A in December 2023 co-led by Dragonfly and Lightspeed Faction, with investors including The Chernin Group and Metallica's Black Squirrel Partners.
Around 20 as of early 2024, including Jungle, Disclosure, Greta Van Fleet, Illenium, Tiga, Mt. Joy, Tycho, My Morning Jacket, Girl in Red, Santigold and Sigur Ros.
No. Medallion is built on blockchain, but fans can sign in with just an email; a wallet (Rainbow, Coinbase or WalletConnect) is optional for those who want one.