GroupMe Co-founder's Latest Project, Splice, Helps Musicians Collaborate

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By Todd Wasserman2013-10-09 13:00:54 UTC

Steve Martocci, the co-founder of GroupMe, has gone public with his second act, Splice, a technology platform for music creators.

Splice, which is currently in private beta, attempts to streamline the process of creating, saving and sharing music. The venture has received $2.75 million in seed round funding from Union Square Ventures with participation from True Ventures, Lerer Ventures, First Round Capital, SV Angel and others.

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The platform will be free to those in private beta, Martocci says. Later on, Splice will figure out a pricing model.

Prior to Wednesday's announcement, the company had been working with a "select number" of artists from genres ranging from electronic dance music to hip hop to rock. In a statement, Splice says it "solves the tedious process of file management, backup, and sample management though understanding the building blocks of a track –- its DNA." Splice lets musicians share their work with a network of creators and then publish the results of the collaboration to fans. The platform is designed to work alongside professional tools like Ableton Live.

Martocci describes Splice as a labor of love, but one that addresses a need in the market. "It's a huge opportunity to disrupt music," he says. Martocci got the inspiration for Splice when the guitar player for his favorite band, Disco Biscuits, bemoaned the lack of user-friendly options in the segment.

The introduction comes after Martocci launched GroupMe and sold the group texting platform to the Microsoft-owned Skype for about $80 million all within the space of about 16 months ending in August 2011. In 2012 Martocci also took part in the White House's summer jobs initiative. Meanwhile, GroupMe's other co-founder, Jared Hecht, is said to be working on a project that's in the early stages and will be "related to finance in some way."

Images: Splice

Topics: Business, Startups