TREBEL, the ad-supported music app that lets users stream and download a licensed catalog offline at no cost, acquired superfan platform Sesh, Music Business Worldwide reported. Neither company disclosed financial terms of the deal, announced Thursday, July 30. TREBEL said what it had lacked until now was "a robust artist services side," a gap Sesh's technology is meant to fill: the platform, TREBEL said, "turns a listener into an identified fan in under a minute," pairing that with campaign tools and a CRM built for artist teams.
"An artist can reach millions of strangers with one post, but can't activate a thousand fans who truly matter," TREBEL said, framing the acquisition as bringing an artist's audience and the tools to reach it into the same place. Sesh co-founder and CEO Pepe del Río described the pairing as complementary: "They built the audience. We built the artist layer," he said, calling TREBEL "one of the most differentiated music platforms in the Americas."
Sesh, co-founded by del Río, Iñigo-Hubertus Bunzl Pelayo, María José Guzmán and Andrés Fajardo, had previously worked with more than 250 artists including Latin stars Anitta, Yeri Mua, Mau y Ricky and Nathy Peluso, a roster the company said had a combined 1 billion social media followers and 44 Grammy nominations in the prior year. The platform lets artists own fan data such as email, location and birth date, and reach fans through a member card saved to their phones. Sesh had raised $7 million led by Miura Global in April 2025.
TREBEL, founded in 2014, filed for a US IPO in 2021, when it reported 3.2 million monthly active users and $2.33 million in revenue for 2020, positioning itself around the billions of listeners worldwide who don't pay for music subscriptions. The app has since expanded across Latin America and struck a 2021 licensing partnership with independent-label rights agency Merlin.
The acquisition lands as music companies race to build businesses around superfans, an opportunity Goldman Sachs valued at $4.5 billion in 2024. Universal Music Group has separately acquired a minority stake in superfan platform Stationhead and struck a multi-year deal with EVEN, while in South Korea, bemyfriends bought a controlling stake in streaming operator Dreamus and SM Entertainment raised its holding in Bubble operator DearU. "Everything we set out to build continues," del Río said of Sesh's future inside TREBEL. "Bigger, stronger, and just getting started."
The facts
- TREBEL acquired the superfan platform Sesh on July 30
- TREBEL is a free, ad supported music app across the US and Latin America
- Sesh says it can identify a listener as a fan in under a minute
- Sesh previously worked with artists including Anitta and Mau y Ricky
- Sesh raised $7 million led by Miura Global in April 2025
- Goldman Sachs valued the superfan monetization opportunity at $4.5 billion in 2024
- TREBEL filed for a US IPO in 2021
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