A group of independent music companies and record labels have come together to back music app start-up Cantilever. The support package includes investment of £250,000 from twenty investors, made up of independent record labels and individual investors from those labels.

The group – all of whom are supporters of The Organization for Recorded Culture and Arts (ORCA) – includes the following label investors: !K7, Because, City Slang, Domino, Everlasting, Exceleration, Hopeless, Ninja Tune, Partisan, Playground, Secret City, Secretly Group, Sub Pop.

The £250,000 investment completes Cantilever’s targeted pre-seed round, with this commitment to the nascent music service coming together during an ORCA discussion about the future shape of the independent music landscape.

City Slang founder Christof Elinghaus, one of the founding supporters of ORCA, said: “Independent labels have very few true partners left in the ecosystem. The platforms that make our music available follow their own agenda, which doesn’t always align with the interests of our community. When we came across Cantilever, we were thrilled to find a concept that 100% aligns with our values and is driven by heavy curation, fairness and enthusiasm for our artist’s music. That is something that all of us are truly happy to support. Still, our investment in Cantilever can only be seen as a tiny step towards a fair, artist-and-label centric streaming ecosystem. We still have many more steps to go.”

The backing of some of the world’s leading independent record labels lends credibility to Cantilever’s core proposition, foundation team and growth plan. Critically, it confirms their vision for a world where the effort and integrity invested in making music is captured in the environment where it’s presented.

Aaron Skates, Cantilever founder, said: “Cantilever was built to serve independent record labels and artists, so having over a dozen of the world’s leading independents backing us is the strongest validation we could ask for. This funding will allow us to make our first hires, improve the user experience and accelerate growth, with partners who have a genuine stake in the company’s success and know exactly who we’re trying to reach.”

Patrick Clifton, ORCA’s Executive Director, said: “Cantilever’s proposition allows for immersion in the musicians’ art in a way that’s atypical in today’s environment of content overload. ORCA’s supporters were united in their desire to see it succeed.”