Australia’s Vinyl Group Hits the Right Note with $1.6M Serenade Crypto Collectibles Deal – Decrypt

Vinyl Group, Australia’s solely listed music firm, has acquired the belongings of London-based Serenade, a platform centered on digital and bodily collectibles, in an equity-based deal valued at as much as US$1.6 million. 

Vinyl launched its web site final yr, aiming to duplicate the expertise of “crate-digging” for information in digital kind, CEO Josh Simons informed Decrypt. The acquisition marks the group’s enlargement into the UK and European markets whereas enhancing its choices within the digital collectibles area. 

“The plan was all the time to develop Vinyl.com’s providing to incorporate music merchandise, digital collectibles, and experiences that join followers with creators, and the acquisition of Serenade was the subsequent step in that course of,” Simons stated.

Below the phrases of the deal, Vinyl has made an upfront cost of $553,000 in shares, with an extra $1 million in shares contingent upon income and earnings targets.

The deal was finalized over the weekend, with Vinyl notifying Serenade that due diligence necessities had been efficiently met. Vinyl’s share value jumped greater than 8% on the ASX on Sunday following the announcement, rising to a three-week excessive above $0.06.

The performance-related earn-out requires the mixed enterprise of Vinyl.com and Serenade to realize $2.76 million in income and $345,000 in earnings earlier than curiosity and taxes inside 12 months of the acquisition.

Serenade, which operates a market for each bodily and digital collectibles, has beforehand supported over 200 international artists, together with high-profile names reminiscent of Liam and Noel Gallagher, Muse, and Sum 41.

The corporate additionally has partnerships with main file labels, together with Warner Music Group and Beggars Group.

Serenade operates on the Polygon blockchain, a layer-2 scaling answer for Ethereum. Its key product, NFC-enabled digital “Good Codecs” constructed atop Polygon’s infrastructure, has seen 56% month-on-month gross sales progress since its launch in January, the corporate claims.

NFC-enabled digital Good Codecs are bodily collectibles embedded with Close to Area Communication expertise that hyperlink to a digital asset or expertise, usually hosted on a blockchain. 

These codecs enable customers to entry digital content material, reminiscent of music, unique movies, or digital paintings, by interacting with the bodily merchandise by way of their smartphone or different NFC-enabled units.

Serenade CEO Max Shand will be a part of Vinyl Group beneath a full-time employment settlement. Shand will obtain 5 million choices, vesting in phases upon attaining particular efficiency targets as a part of his incentive package deal.