Music-Focused Financial Services Startup HIFI Acquired by Block – Billboard

The company joins a technology giant that owns Square, Cash App and music streaming platform Tidal. Courtesy of HIFI HIFI, a financial services startup catering to the music business, has been acquired by Block, the payments technology company launched by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. A person with knowledge of the transaction tells Billboard the deal closed on Tuesday (Oct. 10). Launched in 2020, HIFI allows clients to track their royalty income from a variety of sources such as publishers, distributors and performance rights organizations. “We initially built the solution to service indie artists, and indie artists’ managers and their teams,” CEO Damian Manning told Billboard in 2021. “What we’ve discovered is the artists in the major label system, the managers in the major label system, major publishing system, had the same set of challenges they’re looking for solutions for.” Block, best known for payments and e-commerce software maker Square and Cash App, now has a small portfolio of music companies: It acquired music streaming service Tidal in 2021 for $302 million from Jay-Z and a consortium of artists. Block also owns two companies in the cryptocurrency space: Spiral builds open-source projects that utilize Bitcoin and TBD offers an open source
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