Groover

Groover is an online platform, record label and distributor, connecting artists and musicians with music professionals and media outlets. The service was founded in 2018 in France and operates from offices in Paris and New York.

Groover

Company type	SAS
Industry	Music Tech, Artist Services
Founded	February 12, 2018 (2018-02-12)
Founders	Dorian Perron Romain Palmieri Rafaël Cohen
Headquarters	Paris, New York
Area served	Worldwide
Services	Music promotion
Website	groover.co

The company enables artists, musicians, and their representatives—record labels, music publishers, talent managers, and more—to connect with the music professionals of their choice, including music journalists, radio stations, labels, playlist curators, publishers, managers, concert promoters, DJs, music supervisors, and audio engineers. Through an online platform offering over 3,000 active contacts globally — including SPIN Magazine, Sofar Sounds — Groover uses a micro-payment model that guarantees artists their music will be listened to and receive written feedback, with potential visibility or collaboration opportunities.

Among the platform’s over 500,000 regular users are record labels such as Ninja Tune, Ba Da Bing Records, Dance To The Radio, Roche Musique, Wagram Music, Secret City Records, and artists including Bonobo, Michael Bolton, Aloe Blacc, Haddaway, Passenger, La Femme and Chinese Man.^[1]

History

Groover was launched at the MaMA Music Convention in October 2018. It was co-founded by Dorian Perron, Romain Palmieri, and Rafaël Cohen while they were students at UC Berkeley.^[2] Initially growing in France, the company has since expanded to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Italy, and elsewhere in Europe.

In March 2019, Groover was part of the Business France delegation at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, representing French excellence in digital music innovation.^[3]

In June 2019, Groover raised €1.3 million from various angel investors.^[4]

In April 2021, Groover acquired the platform Soonvibes, which had 70,000 users at the time, in order to strengthen its community in the electronic music space.^[5]

In November 2021, Groover announced a €6 million funding round from Bpifrance Creative Industries and Partech.^[6]

Between 2023 and 2025, Groover entered strategic partnerships with major artist service providers, including CD Baby,^[7] TuneCore,^[8] SoundCloud, UnitedMasters,^[9] Symphonic Distribution,^[10] Audiomack and SACEM.

In February 2024, Groover announced a Series A funding round of $8 million from OneRagTime, Trind, Techmind, and Mozza Angels.^[11][12]

How it works

Groover connects:

• On one side, artists or their representatives aiming to promote a musical work or album
• On the other, music professionals and media outlets—music journalists, radios, labels, playlist curators, publishers, managers, tour promoters, DJs, music supervisors, and audio engineers—seeking new talent

Using a micro-payment system, artists ensure that the professionals they contact will at minimum listen to their track and provide written feedback. These professionals retain full editorial independence and are under no obligation to share the track or contact the artist.^[13]

By helping artists with their public relations and access to the music industry, the platform aims to reduce the bottleneck created by the daily release of over 100,000 new songs^[14] on music streaming services such as Spotify—a result of easier access to music production software and distribution platforms—while media outlets are overwhelmed with unmanageable email volumes.

Awards

• 2nd Prize for Music Innovation 2023 from the Centre national de la musique (France)
• "Future Creator" Award at the Petit Poucet Competition 2019^[15]
• Jury’s Special Mention at the MaMA Invent 2019 competition^[16]
• 1st Prize for Digital Initiative in Culture, Communication & Media 2019 awarded by Audiens^[17]
• "Start-up of the Year" at the Social Music Awards 2020^[18]
• French American Entrepreneurship Award 2022 at the French Consulate in New York^[19]