Atlanta Startup Bets on Booming Creator Economy
January 22, 2025
The creator economy is experiencing explosive growth, and an Atlanta-based music tech startup is aiming to capitalize on it.
Atlanta-based brothers Ameer and Anthony Brown have developed Breakr, a platform designed to streamline the often complex interactions between music artists, influencers, marketing agencies, and record labels.
Launched in 2020, Breakr provides administrative tools, payment processing, performance metrics, and a discovery engine. It aims to simplify the business of connecting artists with social media content creators.
Breakr, already valued at $20 million, has attracted high-profile investors and a user base including 60,000 artists, 20,000 influencers, and major industry players like Interscope Records, Capitol Records, and Warner Music Group. Breakr’s success is fueled by the creator economy, a sector predicted to be worth nearly half a trillion dollars by 2027, according to Goldman Sachs.
How Breakr Works
The platform connects artists and influencers through a centralized marketplace:
- Artists/Labels: Upload songs and create campaigns with budgets for influencer content.
- Influencers: Create profiles and parameters for content creation, then explore and submit to campaigns.
Breakr has facilitated campaigns for notable artists like Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar, and Travis Scott. The platform helps content creators get paid within up to 48 hours—a significant advantage over the weeks-long payment timelines common with traditional agencies. Breakr eliminates the need to track hundreds of small invoices and 1099s for both brands and creators involved.
“We want to be the central node that connects all of these people and removes all the administrative burden that occurs with having them interact. That’s what the creator economy is missing desperately,” said Ameer Brown.
Leveling the Playing Field
For artists, especially those independent of record labels, connecting with influencers can be challenging. Breakr offers a solution, ensuring that influencers readily consider campaigns with pre-set budgets.
Grammy-winning artist and label owner LeCrae, who runs Atlanta-based Reach Records, found Breakr a more effective way to find influencers, avoiding the high costs and limited options of traditional agencies.
“Breakr says there’s no gatekeeper anymore,” LeCrae said.
As the platform has evolved, Breakr is transitioning into a software-as-a-service business. This allows agencies to integrate directly with the payment infrastructure.
Anthony Brown envisions the company becoming a $10 billion enterprise within five to ten years.
“But the thing is, we won’t be able to get there as an industry until there’s more centralization and more infrastructure… That’s what we’re building,” he said.
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