ReverbNation, which launched with a focus on helping musicians and artists promote themselves, is spinning off an internal online advertising services group.
The new venture is called AdWerx and will be led by one of ReverbNation’s founders.
Jed Carlson is leaving ReverbNation where he served as president to lead AdWerx.
ReverbNation’s other co-founder, Michael Doernberg, remains CEO at that venture.
The companies will maintain separate offices and staffs.
With more than 20 people already, AdWerx hopes to double in size in the near future, Calrson told David Ranii of The News and Observer in Raleigh.
The founding of AdWerx dates to ReverbNation’s internally developed “Promote It” product. The AdWerx website is heavily focused on real estate. AdsWerx says it already has some 10,000 paying customers.
“At ReverbNation, we unlocked the power of digital advertising for the individual musician,” Calrson said in the launch announcement.
“We quickly realized there were other small businesses that could benefit from this, if only they could access it. Our mission is to level the playing field, so any small business or individual can get in front of the right audience and get noticed.”
Doernberg described the AdWerx buildout as an incubation process.
“Incubating AdWerx inside of ReverbNation allowed AdWerx to gain traction quickly,” he explained.
“Our team began preparing to separate in early 2014 with a clear understanding that the companies would eventually need to stand alone to realize their full potential,.For ReverbNation this means leveraging its global Artist community and industry-first curation capabilities towards deeper integration with the Entertainment Industry. For AdWerx, it means rapidly expanding into new markets.”
ReverbNation dates back to 2006 and has worked with nearly 4 million artists.
