Music Streaming Startup Makes Waves in LATAM

Spotify, Apple, Pandora, Soundcloud. These are the names that matter in streaming music. But in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Ecuador there is another major player: Leaf Music. The small streaming service, which Bloomberg recently profiled, was founded by a pair of Costa Ricans in an attic in Newcastle after partnering with startup accelerator from Estonia. This long, strange trip — a journey led by two cousins from San José, Melvin and Daniel Salas — led to the creation of Leaf.fm, which is is out-permorning its bigger rivals in several Latin American markets. What makes it unique is allowing bands to connect, via chat, with fans in a region where young people “won’t pay for a music app subscription, [but] they will pay a lot of money to go to concerts.” Their foresight is helping musicians decide where to schedule shows and offers yet another example of Latin American innovation finally to the top in today’s borderless tech world.