Music platform Trebel unveils plans to go public

By Emmanuel Legrand

M&M Media, the Delaware-incorporated parent company of music start-up Trebel, plans to go public via a Regulation A+ offering with the goal to raise $50 million.

  The app allows users to search, browse, preview, and download music for free from a catalogue of over 15 million tracks, including content from Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group.

  Trebel said in an SEC filing that its "core value to music listeners is [its] ability to combine on-demand and offline song play, making available at no cost the features that are most essential to billions of music listeners who are unable or unwilling to subscribe to premium services at no cost."

Targets billions of listeners who won't pay for subs

  The filing said the service counted 3.2 million monthly active users at the end of 2020, up 59% year-on-year. Trebel posted revenues of $1.88 million in 2019 and $2.33m in 2020, up 23% y-o-y.

  In the filing, Trebel said it targets "the massive market of 3+ billion music listeners worldwide who will not – or cannot – pay for music subscriptions. This audience primarily uses music piracy sites and piracy apps, and video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, all of which deliver sub-optimal experiences for users and inequitable monetisation for content owners."

  Trebel's strategy is "to make on-demand music accessible to billions of people around the world who are unable or unwilling to pay for subscriptions."

Eliminate the use of piracy

  The company plans to foster rapidly grow and monetisation through, among others, partnerships that deliver access to new users and territories, such as media or telecom companies. It plans also to develop geographically to markets such as Africa and Southeast Asia, in countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia, that have "high smartphone adoption but low credit card penetration and network connectivity."

  "We will continue to invest in our advertising products in order to create more value for advertisers, content owners, and our users by enhancing our ability to make advertising content more relevant for our users," said the company in the filing. 

  "Offering advertisers additional ways to purchase advertising on a programmatic basis is one example of how we continue to expand our portfolio of advertising products. We are also focused on developing analytics and measurement tools to evaluate, demonstrate, and improve the effectiveness of advertising campaigns on our platform."

  Trebel said its goal is "to eliminate the need for people to use piracy apps or video apps as substitutes to listen to music they love."