London and Oosterhout, 6th September 2022 Strange Fruits, the hugely successful Netherlands based music and tech company specializing in music playlist promotion via creative marketing with a variety of proprietary, in-house tech products, has announced that it is re-branding as Fruits Music.
Founded by 25-year-old former DJ and producer Stef Van Vugt and celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, the company was originally a ‘traditional’ music label specializing in dance music but has evolved to become a unique player in the wider music industry.
Working with a team of acclaimed music producers and writers the company now has a stable of ‘genre-brands’ operating under the Fruits Music umbrella covering a wide range of musical styles, such as Lo-Fi, Jazz, Dance and more, while also encompassing numerous wellbeing and ‘mood’ sounds such a sleep, concentration, and nature simulations.
Through investment in skillful, groundbreaking marketing campaigns and tech products Fruits Music, which grew its presence on Spotify and other DSPS, has become the #1 independent curation profile generating billions of streams and tens of millions of euros in revenues, a significant portion of which has been re-invested in acquiring further listeners and subscribers to grow its brand and catalogue.
The company has also announced that it intends to allocate more resources towards positioning its in-house record label as a frontline imprint. As well as increasing its focus on A&R to attract more high profile signings to the label, the company is transitioning its virtual artist MELON, the company’s digitally animated mascot, into a real-world live and recording artist.
Fruits Music will have several frontline releases before the end of this year, one of which will be in collaboration with Romanian independent heavyweight Global Records, further details of which will be announced shortly.
Stef Van Vugt, Founder and CEO of Fruits Music said, “The Strange Fruits name has served us well over the last five years during which time we have grown to be a dominant player in global independent streaming market. However, as we move into a new phase of our business, which will see us expand our offering and introduce new products and opportunities to engage directly with music fans and entertainment consumers, it is time to re-position our brand to reflect those changes. Our in-house label has always been a key part of what we stand for and it is time now to properly focus time, effort and resources on this part of our business. Fruits Music will always be a home for outcasts, innovators, and creators everywhere.”
Fruits Music is also planning the release of its own Apps that will allow listeners to access new audio products such as meditation music and bedtime stories. ‘Sleep Fruits’ will be a subscription-based health and mindfulness app and ‘Fruits Craft’, a Minecraft server, will be an in-app purchase (IAP) – both are currently in Beta testing mode. More details of the full launch of these apps will be released in the near future.
In addition, the company intends to make available its marketing technology, which was developed to promote both existing and new catalogues on social and streaming platforms, to third parties and is piloting this initiative with several external rights holders. This will create new opportunities in the wider music marketing landscape, accelerating the potential for both new releases and catalogue hits to be discovered and enjoyed by new audiences.
Stef Van Vugt said, “We have enjoyed enormous success by reaching millions of people a month on established music streaming platforms with our catalogue and hope to continue doing so. We will continue to advocate for a fair, balanced and transparent streaming environment, which is vital to the overall health of the music industry. We hope that by keeping an open mind, studying their consumer data and supporting all those who deliver creativity, these services can provide a level playing field for both the biggest hit makers and smallest niche writers to thrive.”
