Universal Music Canada has partnered with PledgeMusic to give its artists access to the direct-to-fan platform and its team. The deal is the first between a major music company and this type of direct-to-fan service.

Universal and its distributed labels will be able take advantage of PledgeMusic’s pre-order platform, social syndication technologies and recommendation engine for both frontline and catalog titles, says PledgeMusic CEO Benji Rogers.

“Love + Fury,” the recent release by Canadian rock band Headstones, was the first release of the two companies’ partnership. The album debuted on the Canadian album chart at No. 7. Rogers says PledgeMusic accounted for a “sizeable” portion of its first-week sales.

“As we have seen with the success of The Headstones wonderful new album, PledgeMusic is a vibrant new way of artist discovery,” said Randy Lennox, President and CEO, Universal Music Canada, in a statement. “Benji and his Pledge team have developed an artist and music fan-friendly experience and we couldn’t be happier to partner our artists and their assets with Pledge’s exciting direct-to-fan platforms.”

Read the full story: Billboard