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16 Feb 2023

Machine Gun Kelly’s Guitarist Sophie Lloyd Slams Rumors They Had an Affair: ‘It’s Disrespectful’

Sophie Lloyd wants no part of the Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox drama. After the “Jennifer’s Body” actress hinted on Instagram that she and her punk rocker fiancé had split, and some fans were quick to try to connect the dots back to Lloyd, who plays guitar in MGK’s band. But in a prompt statement sent out by her management team, Lloyd shut the rumors right down.

“Sophie Lloyd is a professional, accomplished musician who has been needlessly dragged into the media based off of meritless accusations made by social media,” read the Wednesday (Feb. 15) statement, according to People. “Any suggestion that she has ever acted in an unprofessional manner or stepped out of her relationship are untrue.”

“It’s disrespectful to her as a female artist and poor journalism and social commentary to be reporting anything else,” it concluded.

The drama first began when Fox deleted all traces of MGK, born Colson Baker, from her Instagram account Sunday (Feb. 12). And keep in mind, there were a lot of photos of them together, given that the couple had been engaged since January of 2022.

She proceeded to unfollow the “Emo Girl” singer and follow his famous nemesis, Eminem, on the platform. And as if all that wasn’t enough to get her message across, Fox posted a video of a burning envelope with a caption quoting “Pray You Catch Me” from Beyoncé‘s Lemonade, an entire album more or less dedicated to the pain of being cheated on: “You can taste the dishonesty/ it’s all over your breath.”

Before deactivating her account altogether, fans commented on the post with speculation that Baker had cheated on the New Girl alum with Lloyd. “He probably got with Sophie,” commented one fan, to which Fox responded, “Maybe I got with Sophie” alongside a fire emoji.

The rumors of a breakup certainly felt sudden to fans who’ve kept up with MGK and Fox’s romance, considering the pair had just appeared together at the Grammys on Feb. 5. After the “My Ex’s Best Friend” singer, who was nominated for best rock album, walked away empty-handed that night, Fox posted a sweet message on Instagram praising him for handling the loss with “a grace and maturity that I haven’t seen from you before and I’m so proud of you.”

“Watching you walk in humility and gratitude, watching you grow into yourself and become a better man is an immeasurably more satisfying experience than watching you accept an award,” she continued. “Although those will come… and this is irrelevant I guess but I will just never ever get over how beautiful your face is.”

16 Feb 2023

Ryan Seacrest Announces ‘Tough, Tough Decision’ to Leave ‘Live with Kelly and Ryan’

The hardest working man in show business has one less gig. On Thursday morning (Feb. 16), Ryan Seacrest announced that he is stepping down from his co-hosting slot on Live with Kelly and Ryan after a six-year run.

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“Last year we spoke and I made the decision to make this my last season as co-host,” Seacrest said on air, describing the choice as “bittersweet” and a “tough, tough decision.” Luckily for Ripa, her co-star’s replacement is already lined up and she’s very familiar with her new TV spouse. In fact, it is her actual husband, Mark Consuelos, who has filled in for Seacrest in the past; Seacrest assured viewers he’ll pop in as a guest host from time-to-time in the future.

The show will now be called Live with Kelly and Mark and Consuelos will be on camera on Friday (Feb. 17) to begin settling into his new gig. In a statement, Seacrest — who will keep hosting American Idol, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest and his syndicate On Air with Ryan Seacrest daily radio show — said working the Ripa has been a “dream job” and one of the highlights of his career.

“She has been an amazing partner, friend, and confidant, and although we will always be a part of each other’s lives, I will miss our mornings together,” he said, also thanking the show’s executive producer Michael Gelman and the crew. “We’ve made memories to last a lifetime, met some of the most incredible people and had the warmest welcome into the homes of so many viewers across America. It’s been a memorable ride and now I’m excited to pass the baton to Kelly’s ‘real’ husband, Mark.”

Repeatedly placing her hand on his arm, Ripa said, “You are a gem. You are one of my best friends. The greatest part of this experience has been that you’ve gone from being a friend to a family member. You are family. We love you. We are so proud of you… I know how much of a sacrifice it’s been. I know how exhausting it’s been going back and forth [from New York to L.A.] I fully understand your decision making.”

Appearing choked up, Seacrest heaped praise on Ripa — who joined the show in 2001 alongside late co-host Regis Philbin — telling his co-host that he respects and looks up to her. He got sentimental about his opportunity to connect with viewers every morning as she gently rubbed his back and he marveled at how much they “winged” it every day.

At the end of the segment, Seacrest and Ripa hugged and he joked about promising her that he wouldn’t cry, so they cut to commercial to give him time to weep off camera.

Watch Seacret’s announcement below.

16 Feb 2023

Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy-Winning ‘Just Like That’ Reaches Multiple Billboard Charts

After it won the Grammy Award for song of the year Feb. 5, Bonnie Raitt’s “Just Like That” reaches Billboard’s charts for the first time, debuting on multiple lists dated Feb. 18.

The song even reaches No. 1 on one of the surveys, bowing atop Rock Digital Song Sales with 9,000 downloads sold in the Feb. 3-9 tracking week, a 9,947% increase over a negligible amount the previous period, according to Luminate.

It’s Raitt’s first No. 1 on the chart, which began in 2010. Previously, she reached a No. 3 best in 2020 via her co-bill with John Prine, “Angel From Montgomery,” following Prine’s death.

“That” also debuts at No. 6 on the all-format Digital Song Sales ranking, her first top 10.

Elsewhere, the track is No. 26 on the multi-metric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. In addition to its sales, “That” earned 1.4 million official U.S. streams, a 2,955% boost from 45,000 the previous week.

Raitt’s album of the same name, released in 2022, returns to the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart at No. 46 with 7,000 equivalent album units earned, up 1,121%. It premiered at No. 6 in May 2022.

The set also re-appears on Americana/Folk Albums at No. 9, after debuting at No. 1 in May 2022.

In all, Raitt’s song catalog jumped 109% in streams, to 5.8 million Feb. 3-9 vs. 2.8 million the previous week. Removing “That” from the equation, it’s still a 62% leap to 4.4 million from 2.7 million.

Meanwhile, one of her classic returns to a Billboard chart: “Something to Talk About,” which debuts at No. 18 on Rock Digital Song Sales (1,000 sold, up 679%). It became a No. 5 hit in 1991 on the Billboard Hot 100, to date her top-performing song on the survey.

The self-written “That” won song of the year honors at the 65th Grammy Awards, marking Raitt’s second big-four category victory, after Nick of Time took album of the year honors in 1990. “That” is also now being promoted to adult alternative radio as the new single from her latest set, after “Made Up Mind” hit No. 17 on Adult Alternative Airplay last April.

16 Feb 2023

Hoobastank Had No Reason to Shelve Collab With Then-Unknown Rihanna: ‘Total Lack of Foresight’

Music history is littered with tales of shoulda, coulda, woulda. But after Rihanna soared to new heights during her instant-classic Super Bowl LVII halftime show one of the least likely headlines to emerge in the wake of her performance linked the singer to the last band on Earth you’d imagine.

“True story. There is a version of a @Hoobastank song featuring @rihanna when she was a ‘newer’ artist,” tweeted the California nu-metal band’s singer, Doug Robb on Tuesday. “Displaying a total lack of foresight, we didn’t use that version of the song for the album. We also didn’t think ‘The Reason’ was a single though either so… Oops.”

The accompanying video mashed up a clip of Rihanna’s halftime extravaganza with ‘Stank’s hit “Crawling in the Dark.” After a fan asked, Hobbs said the unreleased version was for the song “Inside of You,” the second single from the group’s third album, Every Man for Himself. When another wondered if it would be kosher to release it now as a bonus track, Robb said, “not sure.”

Robb also did an interview with ALT98.7FM radio host Ted Stryker elaborating on the story. He said during the sessions for Every Man, their label Island/Def Jam — Rihanna was signed to Def Jam at the time — approached them asking if they’d be up for including one of their new acts on a song. “Which is pretty common… we’re like, ‘cool, sure, like, what song?’,” he said they asked.

They landed on “Inside of You,” which the band sent to RihRih’s camp back in 2005. “They chopped it up and rearranged some parts because it wasn’t written as a duet or anything, so they had to extend some part and they sent it back and they basically put this pre-chorus where Rihanna wrote some new lyrics and sang a melody,” he said. The group listened to it and because they were so used to hearing it the way they originally wrote it, “nobody really loved it.”

Robb said they ran into Rihanna a few times during that album cycle and she was always, “super cool and so there was never any hard feelings.” And, believe it or not, Robb said they don’t regret saying no to the feature. “I don’t think anybody loved it at the time,” he said, admitting that he hasn’t listened to it in years, but that the subject comes up every once in a while and they all have a laugh about it.

“‘Dude, can you believe we nixed Rihanna on one of our songs?’,” Robb said the band’s members ask each other.

Check out Robb’s tweets below.

16 Feb 2023

Another Planet and Teragram Ballroom Unveil Stealth LA Venue Project Months Before It Opens

For more than two years, Another Planet Entertainment has been quietly working with the creator of iconic venues like Manhattan’s Mercury Lounge and LA’s Teragram Ballroom to launch a new 1,600-capacity venue in downtown Los Angeles — with a goal to shake up the city’s highly competitive venue landscape.

The real estate for The Bellwether, located at 333 Boylston between third and fourth streets just west of downtown and the 110 freeway, was discovered in 2020 by Michael Swier, one of the original partners in New York’s Bowery Presents and an owner of the Teragram and the Moroccan Lounge. Hoping to keep the project off the radar of better financed competitors, Swier began looking for a partner on the 49,000 sq-ft- multi-genre performance space, with an open GA floor, wrap around balcony, multiple bars, a commercial kitchen and a private 600-capacity event space.

333 Boylston has mostly been occupied by night club operators the past three decades, including Prince, who named the night spot after his song “Glam Slam” and from 1992 to 1995 adorned it with huge purple dance floors, heavy gold mesh fabric and a jewel-strewn bed cradled in a sculpted hand from Prince’s Erotic City concert tour. What followed was nearly three failed decades of trying to operate the multilevel space as a dance club. Thinking a music performance venue was a better fit, Swier would eventually find a partner, striking a deal with Another Planet Entertainment’s Gregg Perloff and Allen Scott to partner on a long-term lease and two-year renovation effort expected to wrap up this spring.

Scott and Swier were at the Bellwether earlier this week, touring the sprawling complex which will also house a year-round bar and restaurant, a 600-capacity private event space and offices for both Another Planet and Telegraph Road Management, Laurence Freedmans management company whose clients include Billy Idol, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Cherry Glazerr, Miya Folick and Advertisement. The Bellwether is Another Planet’s first foray into Los Angeles, hometown turf for APE’s two main competitors in the Bay Area where Perloff and company operate the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, the Greek Theate, Oakland’s Fox Theatre, the independent and San Francisco’s famed Castro Theater, currently under renovation. Live Nation’s holdings in San Francisco include the Fillmore and the recently opened August Hall, while AEG operates the Warfield, the Regency Ballroom and the Great American Hall.

LA’s venue landscape is even more crowded with each company operating a half-dozen venues in the city and independently owned venues like the Troubadour, Largo and the Knitting Factory in North Hollywood. Size wise, the Bellwethers 1,600-capacity lands it between the Live Nation-owned Wiltern Theater (1,850 capacity) and AEG’s El Rey Theater (1,200).

Swier, a New Yorker who recently bought a loft in LA in preparation for the opening of his third venue in the city, is a highly accomplished venue designer and independent live music operator who along with his late wife Margaret and architect brother Brian Swier is best known for New York’s iconic Bowery Ballroom and Mercury Lounge. Swier is a co-founder of New York powerhouse promotion company Bowery Presents and is responsible for relaunching and redesigning Terminal 5 and the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Swier would eventually part ways with Bowery Presents, and in 2017, Bowery would sell a 50% stake in the company to AEG.

Perloff’s career has parallels to Swier – the Maryland native had a knack for concert promotion in college and caught the attention of legendary San Francisco promoter Bill Graham, who famously hired a young Perloff to avoid competing with him. Perloff became Graham’s understudy, and together with longtime BGP pioneer Sherry Wasserman, the three created the business model for the contemporary concert business. After Graham died in a helicopter crash, BGP was sold to SFX and eventually became one of the core components of Live Nation, which stills owns and manages the bulk of the BGP venue portfolio.

Perloff and Wasserman founded Another Planet in 2003 and launched the Outside Lands festival in 2008. Today it is the largest independently operated festival in the U.S., according to Billboard.

Swier didn’t know much about Perloff prior to reaching out to him in 2020 to discuss a potential partnership for the building. Both men decided to keep the project, keeping every detail of the project out of the public domain as they worked to sign the lease and then begin renovations. The stealth campaign worked – maybe too well. Months away from opening, the partners realized they needed to reach out to agents to start booking the building, which would end the secrecy. In fact, today’s decision to announce the existence of the project was made yesterday, a week earlier than planned. Meetings and private tours of the Bellwether are planned for next week during the annual Pollstar Live! conference in Los Angeles.

16 Feb 2023

Rihanna Says Baby Son Is ‘Obsessed’ with Dad A$AP Rocky

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NFL: FEB 12 Super Bowl LVII - Eagles vs Chiefs

Source: Icon Sportswire / Getty

In the new issue of British Vogue, featuring a gorgeous cover of Rihanna, A$AP Rocky and their baby boy in his magazine debut, the music icon and Fenty mogul said that her son is “obsessed” with his dad.

“I’m just sitting on the sidelines when they’re together,” she says in the exclusive feature article, seemingly amused by her role in the background. “I’m literally the girl trying to get into the boys club, waiting for my turn. He is obsessed with his father. And I’m like: ‘Didn’t I give birth to you? What is going on?’” 

She added, “Their connection is undeniable. The second Rocky makes eye contact with him he is on fire. The whole thing they say about sons and moms, it’s a myth. Sons and fathers is crazy. I realized that the validation that you really need as a boy is from your father.”

The megastar just stunned the world during her Super Bowl appearance last Sunday, Feb. 12 by showing off another baby bump and announcing that she is expecting a second child. 

Ri-Ri also shared some insight into her relationship with the A$AP Mob rapper whom she previously dated and had a long friendship. “We’re best friends with a baby,” she says, laughing at their dynamic now. “We have to be on the same page, but we’ve always kind of had that in our relationship. Everything changes when you have a baby but I wouldn’t say it’s done anything but made us closer.”

In the cover story, she also explained why she changed from her previous decision to not perform at the game due to her support of blackballed former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. 

“There’s still a lot of mending to be done in my eyes,” she says now, “but it’s powerful to break those doors, and have representation at such a high, high level and a consistent level.” She notes the two previous Super Bowls which demonstrated representation to her, specifically referring to last year’s headliners, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J Blige and Kendrick Lamar, “you know, representing the urban community, globally. It is powerful. It sends a really strong message.” 

She also added that motherhood may have influenced her decision, “Of course,” she says, as the writer notes she is visibly moved, “raising a young Black man is one of the scariest responsibilities in life.” It’s made her re-evaluate everything. “You’re like, ‘What am I leaving my kids to? This is the planet they’re gonna be living on?’” She added, “All of those things really start to hit differently.”

16 Feb 2023

Playboi Carti Arrested For Domestic Violence, Allegedly Choked Out Pregnant Girlfriend

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Playboi Carti mugshot

Source: Atlanta PD / Fulton County Sheriff’s Office

Playboi Carti was arrested under felony charges of domestic violence. Allegedly, late last year, the rapper, born Jason Carter, choked out his girlfriend, over a paternity test.

According to the victim, she’s Carti’s live-in girlfriend and she was 14 months pregnant when he allegedly put hands on her.

Reports TMZ:

According to the arrest affidavit, obtained by TMZ, the woman told police the rapper grabbed her by her throat and pushed her, holding her neck until she could barely breathe. She even told cops she thought she was going to die.

Police say the woman told officers she’s been in a relationship with Playboi Carti for 2 years, has lived with him since July 2022 and was 14 weeks pregnant at the time of the alleged incident on Dec. 20.

Fortunately for the victim, there were witnesses. However, that didn’t stop the incident from escalating. 

The woman told cops she wanted to talk to Playboi Carti about the baby and a conversation about a paternity test led to an argument, which she claims escalated to a physical attack. She told police a witness jumped in to try and break up the fight, and when she was able to escape Carti’s grasp, she ran to her car … where she claims he attacked her again.

The alleged victim told cops Carti tried pulling her out of the car and put his hand over her mouth as she tried to use the vehicle’s SOS feature to call police. When cops arrived, police say the woman had visible injuries to her neck, chest and back.

After news of the arrest was made public, rapper Iggy Azalea, who has a child with Carti, chimed in by basically saying “I told you so” in regards to the domestic violence claims.

Unfortunately, rappers putting hands on their partners is not a rarity.

16 Feb 2023

Music Wholesaler Alliance Entertainment Goes Public, But Not Without a Hitch

Alliance Entertainment’s plan to go public through a reverse merger with Adara Acquisition Corp. — a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) — got sideswiped by the collapse of the SPAC market.

While the deal was finalized Monday (Feb. 13) and Alliance Entertainment is now a publicly traded company, it leaves the media wholesaler without the initial intended benefit of reaping tens of millions of dollars in new funding to continue making acquisitions to fuel growth and to modernize its warehouse equipment.

That’s because only Adara shareholders owning 167,00 shares (out of 10 million total) have chosen to participate as stockholders in the merged entity. As a result, Alliance Entertainment only received about $1.67 million, which likely isn’t enough to cover the legal and investment banking fees for the transaction.

Alliance Entertainment Company Logo.

Alliance Entertainment Holding

The company’s light stock float also leaves it ineligible to be listed by the New York Stock Exchange as originally planned, so now Alliance is being carried on the OTC pink-sheet marketplace.

Alliance Entertainment — which carried a $480 million valuation going into the deal — remains a formidable powerhouse as a one-stop rack jobber and independent distributor and overall entertainment software wholesaler, however. While the company brought in $28.62 million in net income on revenue of $1.42 billion for its fiscal year ended June 30, 2022, it lost $8.34 million on sales of $238.7 million for the three-month period spanning from July to September.

Alliance Entertainment announced its plans to go public via a SPAC reverse merger in June 2022. At that point, investor excitement over the SPAC route to public listings had already cooled from its high in 2021, but by the end of the year, it had totally tanked. And even if Alliance Entertainment didn’t raise as much money as it had hoped by going public, there are other benefits. As a publicly traded company with audited financial statements that need to surpass the scrutiny of the Securities and Exchange Commission, it should now be able access capital and options to raise funding through debt beyond its previous reliance on bank loans.

“We believe that today’s milestone combined with our strong revenue growth, expanding customer base and product offering, and several successful acquisitions, will help accelerate our future expansion initiatives,” said Alliance Entertainment CEO Jeff Walker in a statement. “Alliance Entertainment today is well positioned to continue to capitalize on shifts towards eCommerce and Omni-Channel strategies, especially with retailers and manufacturers’ vastly increased reliance on their DTC (Direct to Consumer) fulfillment and distribution partners. We are at an inflection point that now positions us to execute a multi-prong growth strategy that we expect will deliver a double-digit revenue growth rate with strong cash generation to the bottom line.”

Alliance Entertainment serves as a physical music, movies and video games wholesaler to retailers including Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Kohls and Gamestop, as well as independent stores; it’s also a rack jobber to chains like Walmart and Barnes and Noble. It additionally provides e-commerce fulfillment to many of those retailers and runs its own online websites including Deepdiscount.com, Popmarket.com, Importcds.com, Critic’s Choice Video, Collectors Choice Music and Movies Unlimited, while fielding its own brands on eBay, Amazon Marketplace and Discogs as well. In total, nearly $540 million, or 38% of Alliance’s revenue, is generated through the above online sales.

In total, Alliance says it stocks over 485,000 unique entertainment products from Microsoft, Nintendo, Activision, Electronic Arts, Sega, Funko, Disney, Warner Home Video, Universal Video, Sony Pictures, Fox, Lionsgate, Paramount, Warner Music, Sony Music, Universal Music, Mattel, Lego, Hasbro, Arcade1Up and another roughly 500 entertainment product manufacturers. Within that, the company also fields independent distribution companies like music distributor AMPED, video distributor Solutions and video game distributor Cokem that exclusively carry over 57,000 vinyl, CD, DVD and video games titles combined.

“This business combination [with Adara] will further enable our significant focus on a strategic roll-up strategy of acquiring and integrating competitors and complementary businesses which we believe will drive an accelerated competitive position and value creation,” said Alliance Entertainment chairman Bruce Ogilvie in a statement. Being a publicly traded company will allow for further investment, he added, in automating facilities and upgrading proprietary software, which he said makes management “confident we can grow revenue and expand margins.”

Ogilvie continued, “We will also continue to expand into new consumer product segments, growing our product offering and providing more to our existing customer base while attracting new customers in the process.”

Walker and Ogilvie retain nearly 95% ownership in Alliance Entertainment and their shares are subject to an extended lock-up period.

16 Feb 2023

Techstars Music Reveals 2023 Class of Startups for Accelerator Program

Baton

Baton is a collaboration platform that solves chain of custody for work in progress material, ensuring artists are properly credited and compensated for their work. Think of them a bit like GitHub for music.

Since launching a private beta this past fall, Baton has helped connect hundreds of artists with multiple Grammy-winners and has protected the IP of thousands of songs.

The team is a mix of creative technologists from NYU ITP, an “art school for engineers or an engineering school for artists” and industry veterans that have spent over a decade working with many of the largest artists in the world.

Gabe Warshaw, CEO & Founder, Baton said, “The vast majority of music that gets made never gets released. So much of it is incredible, and it’s never been easier to create without a professional studio. At the same time, remote collaboration has left creators increasingly vulnerable to stolen IP. Baton is building an ecosystem that helps musicians find their people. It allows material to be worked on and shared safely with anyone in the world, so creators know that wherever their work ends up, they’ll get credited and compensated in the way they should.”

BEEPR

BEEPR allows fans to opt-in to push notifications about music from their favorite artists, creating ephemeral moments between fans with shared interests. Launched in Summer 2020, BEEPR has garnered 300,000 registered users and 100,000 monthly active users with $0 spent on marketing. BEEPR has helped DSP’s gain over 70 million streams this year. BEEPR’s goal is to create moments in music powered by push notifications.

Jake Zinn, CEO & Founder, BEEPR stated, “Technology has made the music listening experience more convenient. While the streaming services have provided fans what they want to hear, BEEPR provides when they want to hear it.”

Confetti

Confetti is a content creation and live-streaming app that enables couples to get the most out of their weddings by empowering in-person and virtual guests to create fun and memorable content through custom prompts. Say goodbye to stale photos, videos, and your aunt going live on FaceBook, and say hello to beautiful and unforgettable memories that will last a lifetime, whether you’re seated at Table 8 or 3,000 miles away. With Confetti, you have one less thing to worry about on your big day.

Andrew Vuu, CEO, Confetti, said: “Today, wedding guests are creating amazing content and sharing media, which has generated hundreds of billions of impressions on social platforms. However, the problem is that the only way couples can access this great content is through clunky shared albums or by harassing people via text. Currently, we are revolutionizing the wedding industry by providing social media communities with front-row access to their favorite creators’ biggest day through our platform. We are on track to reach 100 million fans across 10 different countries over the next year and have organically generated over 15 million social media views on our path to transform the wedding experience. We are thrilled to extend the power of Confetti to couples everywhere this summer.”

Five Mics

Five Mics is a digital hip-hop trading card game (think Yugioh or Hearthstone, but with rappers and DJs, not elves and dragons). Players construct their decks based around different card styles and can choose to play either casually with friends or competitively in tournaments. With each win, players can also earn new cards, which they own and can collect, trade, or gift to other players.

The collectible card game market is expected to reach $32B by 2027, and hip-hop (the #1 streaming genre in the US accounting for $2.7B in 2021) is arguably the most popular music genre in the world, influencing Latin Trap, Afrobeats, K-Hip-Hop, and more around the globe. Five Mics is determined to bring the two together in an authentic way never before seen, made by the culture, for the culture.

Ace Patterson, CEO, Five Mics, added: “Go on Twitch right now, and more likely than not you’ll find gamers streaming while playing hip-hop music. That’s the dope thing about hip-hop: it’s truly universal. It’s not just for ‘some’ people – it’s for ALL people. And as someone that’s both a hip-hop artist that loves playing trading card games, I truly believe that combining both worlds will impact culture in a seismic way.”

Haven

Haven’s network of event & lifestyle brands host sound-based experiences in stunning outdoor & unconventional indoor spaces. It could be a harpist in a canyon at sunset for Floating or a pioneering composer performing in a historic cathedral for Ambient Church, over 16,000 people gathered with us (in person!) this past year in NYC, LA, Chicago, Portland and Seattle. Other investors include 6lack, Oleg Stavitsky (Co-Founder / CEO, Endel), and Anthony Batt (Founder, SpinMedia).

Brian Schopfel, CEO, Haven, said: “Tech, entertainment and wellness industries have continued to become more algorithmic, reward based, and impersonal; only fueling burnout long term. Haven encourages being vs. doing, inclusion vs. achievement, and IRL vs. URL, and we’re thrilled to be a part of the Techstars Music program to continue to learn, grow and share our experiences with as many people as possible.”

Highly Liquid

Highly Liquid is a streetwear brand born on the internet: a fashion house that combines both digital and physical worlds to create limited-edition drops of apparel, software, and CPG. Our products are designed to spark meaningful conversations around sexuality, gender, and identity, and their role within the financial landscape.

Izzy Howell, CEO, Highly Liquid, said: “Selling panties on the internet doesn’t really sound like the start of a revolution, but by creating NFTs that can be redeemed for IRL panties that say ‘highly liquid’ on the crotch, we are effectively starting a new wave in streetwear – one that puts hyper-femininity at the forefront of culture.”

HomeRoom

HomeRoom is a software platform that unlocks the powerful growth potential of online communities. In the digital age, it’s become increasingly difficult for businesses, creators, and musicians to cut through the noise. HomeRoom provides a suite of tools to enable community leaders to save time with their daily tasks, analytics to measure success, and plugins for hosting memorable community events.

Launched to the public in September 2022, HomeRoom now powers 170+ communities of over 200k combined members and has scaled to $22k MRR with only 70 paying customers. With integrations planned for Twitch, Mastodon, and GitHub by the end of 2023, HomeRoom is building the “Google Analytics for community.”

Arjay Ruggles, CEO, HomeRoom says: ”Audiences are exhausted by the deluge of ads inserted into every aspect of their online experience and have turned to online communities as a source of respite. In response, we’ve seen several companies capitalize on the moment: AirBnB ramped up their community strategy in 2020, cut their marketing spend in half for two years in a row, and have reached a $71 Billion market cap. I believe all businesses and creators should have access to the tools necessary to build the same opportunities for themselves. Community is the future of growth, and HomeRoom is building the foundation upon which all businesses can thrive.”

OBEYme

OBEYme is a social platform where African music fans compete to make songs go viral globally by hosting virtual parties. The most engaging users are rewarded with a pro-rata share of net subscription revenues daily. The result: African tastemakers can host the continent’s hottest parties but also monetize their local influence sustainably. In its first 3 months, 50k South African youth party-hopped virtually on OBEYme’s Beta platform.

Ygor Francisco, CEO/founder, OBEYme, stated: “The time is ripe for leveraging a music-based social platform that rewards Africa’s most influential music fans for driving the culture. Pop culture is dominated by Afrobeats and Amapiano, yet offers African fans and artists disproportionate compensation for their contribution to global music culture.”

RYLTY

RYLTY is a back-office application that helps music catalog owners maximize their investments. The first tool scans owners’ catalogs to seek out errors and omissions that cause royalty underpayments. What used to take a team of royalty accountants, analysts, and administrators days to complete, can now be done with the push of a button. To date, RYLTY has corrected over 3,000 errors and recovered more than $20 million in catalog value. Select customers include Tempo Music, Influence Media Partners, Doja Cat, Troye Sivan, and J.I.D.

Nicholas Judd, CEO, RYLTY, said: “You can’t build a company like ours in a bubble and Techstars Music is the perfect partner to help us expand our reach to help more musicians and catalog owners. We are taking a practical, multi-disciplinary approach to solve this multi-billion dollar problem. Our team is made up of some of the brightest minds in both music and fintech allowing us to take what used to be a manual process and scale it to reach every recording artist, songwriter, and catalog owner in the music industry.”

Seed

Even though Latin artists dominate the music industry today, there’s at least 25 million Latin music creators that don’t have access to music business education, losing time, money and opportunities.

Seed helps Latin music creators and their teams navigate the music industry, protect their rights and make money through an ever-growing catalog of online courses and community. Think of a private business school minus the crippling debt.

In just 15 months, Seed has enrolled more than 921 students from 36 countries, made almost half a million dollars in revenue, and closed more than 5 corporate partnerships. If you want to become a music business professional or entrepreneur, join Seed today!

Alexiomar Rodriguez, CEO, Seed, stated: “The Latin music market is a driving force behind the global music industry, with US Latin music revenues reaching $1 billion in 2022. However, in many Latin American countries, there are no music business schools, and most Latin music creators and aspiring professionals can’t afford to move to the US to attend a university and pay $40,000 in tuition per year. As a music lawyer and producer, I believe bridging this gap will open a whole new world of possibilities.”