Revolutionizing the music industry: How Revohloo empowers artists

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After retiring from her job of more than 20 years at Santander Bank, Robbie DeBarros joined sibling Tracy DeBarros in developing the innovative music platform that the two had been dreaming about for 10 years.

“Leaving my job and the security that I was used to, we had to get to a certain point in our journey. March of last year, I called Tracy up and said, ‘This is it, I’m leaving,’” Robbie DeBarros recalled of her initial transition out of banking and into media.

Now, more than five years after founding Revohloo, the pair hopes to revolutionize the music industry further. The platform engages fans by not only allowing them to interact with their favorite artists’ content more directly, but also giving them the ability to “remix and create” their own versions of music videos. This flagship product creates a unique and interactive experience for fans not previously available on other streaming services.

“We’re definitely big on innovation; we love AI and things of that nature,” said Robbie DeBarros.

“What’s at the core of our culture is building and creating things that bring value to not only the artists, but to the fans as well,” said Tracy DeBarros. “We’re a social platform at our core; it’s a social app based on music and video.” 

With the music industry evolving rapidly, a gap has formed between platforms and content creators in terms of compensation, with larger platforms often demonetizing videos or keeping a majority of profits. Revohloo seeks to bridge that gap by giving artists more monetary control of their work.

“It’s different. We’re doing everything different. Nobody wants us to build another Instagram. Nobody needs another YouTube,” Tracy DeBarros said. The company seeks to differentiate itself through a well-rounded approach that taps into different facets of media consumption.

Revohloo’s patent-pending technology allows viewers to remix their favorite music videos into 250+ versions of the original, while artists maintain full control and monetization of their content.

“Even with the monetization of video, a majority of people trying to monetize videos on YouTube are not getting a million views. Half of YouTube’s business is music. For artists that are up and coming, it is hard for them to monetize their video,” Tracy DeBarros explained.

Streaming giants like YouTube typically take a 50% cut of ad revenue from videos. Revohloo aims to promote engaging music videos and advertising technologies that equally benefit both the artists as well as the fans. It is revolutionary in that artists’ success is a priority for the company, which offers rights-holders 100% of pre-roll net ad revenue for standard music videos. In addition, artists receive 50% of the profits earned from Revohloo music videos.

Robbie DeBarros’ two sons are both artists, which has helped her in understanding what issues content creators face when it comes to lack of revenue options. Her own experience watching her sons struggle to be adequately compensated for their work has been a driving factor in her participation and influence within the company.

“I’ve seen all of the struggles that they’ve had in building careers and engaging an audience; it’s tough. So, what can we do to help them in that effort? That’s what we try to do,” she said. 

In addition to advancing opportunities for musical artists, Tracy and Robbie DeBarros also look to use this service as a way to gauge political support. In a social climate where social media consumption becomes quickly politicized, Revohloo aims to encourage voter registration and political conversations on its app. The founders acknowledge that an increase in monetary autonomy via Revohloo also increases the autonomy of the content distributed on the platform; they hope to use this to encourage political participation this upcoming election season.

“There are 16 squares in a Revohloo … imagine if you had 16 hot-button political topics. After a while, you’ll get a consensus of what matters to voters. You’re getting your political information in a way that people can engage with political content that truly matters to them.” Tracy DeBarros explained.

Revohloo’s patent-pending AdDefender technology continues to be serve as a large attraction for the platform. AdDefender stitches ads (pre-roll video) into an interactive music video as one file, eliminating the opportunity for any ad-blocking technologies.

The platform, with its unique technology, allows advertisers, artists and rights-holders to earn more from the licensing and uploading of content, as revenue will increase due to the lack of ad filtration.

Revohloo continues to expand into many facets of online media consumption, as both co-founders recognize the importance of not limiting oneself to specific corners of the internet. In fact, Tracy DeBarros moved to Washington to take a more hands-on approach to growing Revohloo’s partnership with Microsoft.

The company continues to adapt to the natural cycles of the music industry, which is what sets the DeBarros sisters apart from other entrepreneurs. Revohloo’s ever-evolving technologies exemplify the founders’ deep understanding of social media platforms as well as what it takes to succeed in such a saturated market.