Gaga-backed social music startup Backplane runs out of cash and shuts down

Social networks aiming to create bespoke communities of fans for the benefit of a specific artist do not historically have a good track record. Backplane, the startup backed by Lady Gaga and that constituted the foundation for her Little Monsters network, was supposed to be the one that would turn it all around. 

Instead, TechCrunch reports that the startup has now gone out of business and re-sold its assets to new and existing investors who will try and do ‘something’ with it. 

Backplane raised $18.9 million from some of the most respected VCs in Silicon Valley including Sequoia Capital and Google Ventures, but its dream of becoming the key player in building bespoke social networks for artists of all shapes and sizes never materialised. 

It is worth noting that Gaga's Little Monsters website does not appear to have suffered as a result of the startup's shutdown, and the site continues to state "Powered by Place", with Place.xyz being a last-ditch attempt that had been made to pivot Backplane into a concept that would work. Little Monsters has close to a million users, so it makes sense for whoever purchased the assets of the startup to keep it running smoothly, it is after all the company's only large scale, successful case study. 

(Andrea Leonelli)