tech
Page: 54
HipHopWired Featured Video
Bowers & Wilkins, a leading audio company that produces top-of-the-line products, offers an array of award-winning speakers, headphones, and other devices. The brand’s Px8 over-the-ear headphones are among those lauded devices, and Bowers & Wilkins rolled out a new color finish that reminds us of a certain suit-wearing genius superhero.
Founded in 1966, Bowers & Wilkins has emerged as a leader in providing studio speakers, home speakers, car audio devices, and more. Engineers, musicians, and true audiophiles are the target audience for B&W products but they provide their premiere technology at a fair entry price.
The latest color from B&W for the Px8 is the Royal Burgundy finish. This version of the Px8, as we noted before, is a noise-canceling over-the-ear wireless headphones set that sport a Nappa leather finish along with gold trimmings. The Royal Burgundy joins the existing and still popular Black and Tan Nappa leather finishes.
The B&W team has refined the bells and whistles of its flagship headphones. If one is familiar with the vast world of headphone drivers, the Px8 came equipped with 40mm Carbon Cone drive units, the same drivers that power its innovative loudspeaker units. Paired with the Bowers & Wilkins-developed DSP (Digital Signal Processing), fans who use music streaming services can expect 24-bit high-resolution sound.
Other features of the Px8 included its standard single cast-aluminum arm structure, and the earcups, memory foam cushions, and headband also feature the Nappa leather trim. The Px8 also comes with a handy carrying case for easy transport and storage.
B&W updated its acoustic tuning that promises faster response and low distortion across a wide range of frequencies, building upon the build quality of the bar set by the Px7 S2 earbuds and the Px7 S2e over-the-ear headphones. What listeners can expect is the best representation of sound from the music you enjoy, especially if you use a streaming service that offers high-fidelity options.
The Bowers & Wilkins Px8 model is priced at $699 in the Black, Tan, and new Royal burgundy finish.
Learn more here.
—
Photo: B&W
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Andrew Toth / Getty / FaZe Clan
Esports is struggling, and you don’t have to look further than what popular esports and influencer brand FaZe Clan is going through. Now, the organization is hoping after being purchased, it can stay afloat.
Spotted on The Verge, Faze Clan has been acquired in a stock deal worth about $17 million by gaming analytics and Esports brand company Gamesquare.
The $17 million is a steep drop from Faze’s $725-million valuation at the time of its special purpose acquisition company, SPAC, merger in July of 2022.
The website also notes that Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is an investor in Gamesquare.
Like many entities in the Esports industry, the Esports organization has struggled since SPAC made it a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq exchange, posting a $28.4-million loss “through the first half of 2023,” Bloomberg reports.
A History of Struggle
Before news of the $17 million acquisition, FaZe Clan gave CEO Lee Trink the boot. The Esports organization boasted big names like Lil Yachty and LeBron James’ son, Bronny James, as members and NBA hooper Ben Simmons as an investor.
The organization abruptly lost one of its most prominent investors, Snoop Dogg, who reportedly lost millions after investing in the Esports organization.
With the acquisition by Gamesquare, FaZe Clan hopes that hitting the reset button will help right the sinking ship. FaZe Clan’s leadership is reverting to its original leadership structure.
Richard “Faze Banks” Bengtson will serve as CEO, Thomas “Faze Temperrr” Oliveira will become president, and Yousef “Faze Apex” Abdelfattah will take over as COO.
Via a press release, FaZe Clan says it will be “re-engaging with its core fanbase” in hopes that it will return the organization to the top of Esports relevancy.
We shall see if this all works out for the once mega-popular Esports organization.
—
Photo: Andrew Toth / Getty
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. Listening to your favorite artists doesn’t have to be done only through your Bluetooth earbuds, and Soundcore wants to make it […]
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Blizzard Entertainment / Diablo IV
Still on the fence about entering Sanctuary and taking down Lilith? Well, thanks to Xbox Free Play Days, you can take the game for a spin without opening your wallet.
Diablo IV is currently in its second season, The Season of Blood, and many players have already taken down the game’s big bad Lillith, but many still have not yet experienced the greatness that is Diablo IV.
Kicking off on Thursday, October 19, Xbox Free Play Days gives gamers a chance to play 10 hours of Diablo IV for free, and when the trial is up, buy the game for 25% off.
Players will have access to Diablo IV’s content, and your progress will carry over if you purchase the game.
In our review of Diablo IV, our resident gamer, Beanz, wrote, “I’ve been through hell and back and enjoyed every minute of my hellishly addictive journey in Diablo IV.”
Diablo IV Is Rewarding Players In A Unique Way
In more Diablo IV news, players are encouraged to donate real blood to save lives and earn in-game rewards to celebrate the Season of Blood.
The new season sees Lord Zir use his Blood Seekers to raid the Sanctuary to procure blood for him using Blood Harvest rituals where players must defeat mini-bosses.
Diablo offers players in the United States residents a chance to donate “666 quarts of actual donated blood (equaling around 1,332 separate donations, with 1 pint per donation) into in-game rewards, while ultimately helping to save lives.”
Once the goal is reached, players who donated and those who didn’t will be entered in a contest to win a new custom-built PC infused with real human blood in its liquid cooling, which pays tribute to the game.
Well damn.
Here is a breakdown of the giveaway:
Tier 1: At 33% participation of the total 666-quart goal, all players will receive weapon cosmetics which include:
Dagger – Bloodpetal Anlace
Axe – Bloodpetal Sever
Necro Offhand – Bloodpetal Heart
Sword – Bloodpetal Blade
Druid Staff – Bloodpetal Bludgeon
Tier 2: At 66% participation, all players will receive the aforementioned rewards plus The Loch Raeth Maor Barbarian armor set.
Tier 3: At 100% participation, all players will receive the aforementioned rewards plus the Vermilion Eye Piebald mount, and the custom real human blood-infused PC sweepstakes will become available to enter.
So what are you waiting for? Download the gamer and start a journey in Sanctuary to spill some demon blood and guts.
—
Photo: Blizzard Entertainment / Diablo IV
A little more than two years ago, HYBE invested millions into Supertone, an AI voice synthesis startup. Their relationship would allow for a collaboration with an existent artist that created a new kind of artist entirely — here’s how it happened.
An AI Alliance
HYBE’s relationship with Supertone begins in February 2021, when HYBE reportedly invests $3.6 million into it. By January 2023, their partnership expands when HYBE acquires Supertone entirely for a reported price of over $30 million. Little was then known about HYBE’s plans to integrate Supertone technology into its music empire (the company’s stable of K-pop supergroups includes BTS, Tomorrow x Together and ENHYPEN) other than that HYBE’s founder and chairman, Bang Si-Hyuk, told Billboard in his recent cover story that one of HYBE’s first integrations was referred to internally as “Project L” and scheduled for May 2023.
The Digital Debut
Right on schedule, HYBE starts to tease an upcoming single from MIDNATT, a new alter-ego of popular Korean singer Lee Hyun. Two weeks later, on May 15, he releases his first single, “Masquerade,” using Supertone technology to help him translate it into six languages: English, Korean, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese. Through Supertone, the singer improves his intonation and pronunciation of the languages to sound more like a native speaker. Shortly after its release, MIDNATT says that he was inspired by “talking about language barriers” with his team: “When I would listen to music in other languages, I couldn’t immerse into the music as well as in my native language, and we were talking about how we could overcome [that].”
[embedded content]
How It Works
Voice synthesis is best understood as a subset of generative AI that lets users manipulate their voice while talking or singing, allowing them to assume the timbre and tone of a particular celebrity, character or loved one. But some companies, like Supertone, also enable users to make other edits, like altering the language, age or gender of speech.
The Results
It’s a controversial use of AI, raising ethical questions about assuming someone else’s voice and making one’s own unrecognizable, but MIDNATT’s employment of voice-synthesis technology was largely well received. “After I experienced it myself, I think it really depends on how you utilize it,” he says of using the technology. “The sense of responsibility is what matters the most. So as far as it is used in the music, I think it is a great opportunity for me to make [my song] more accessible and more immersive to the fans worldwide.”
This story will appear in the Oct. 21, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Since the dawn of the dotcom bubble, countless promising tech companies have flamed out shortly after starting up, often dragging investors down with them.
Billboard asked three prominent music tech advocates to identify the red flags that investors need to watch for and applied them to three sectors once touted as the future but since consigned to the past.
NFTs
One of the most-hyped tech innovations in recent years, non-fungible tokens generated $25 billion in total sales in 2021, according to market tracker DappRadar. The digital collectibles that are bought and sold using digital currencies drew big-name investors such as Jack Dorsey, Mark Cuban and Guy Oseary and generated millions from successful NFT sales by artists like Diplo, Grimes and The Weeknd. But today, the chat rooms where NFT investors gather are “just such a sad place,” Diplo told Billboard in August. “It was such a mountain of hype.”
The once-popular Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, which Oseary represented and celebrities including Jimmy Fallon, Madonna and Justin Bieber promoted, has seen its floor price — a minimum dollar amount that indicates market demand — decline by 88% from its peak in April 2022. (Two money-losing Bored Ape NFT holders subsequently sued those celebrities, alleging they failed to disclose their financial stake in the company they were promoting.) The lesson? Raised in Space music/tech investment fund founder and managing partner Shara Senderoff says it’s crucial to remain “unfazed by the allure of potential brand partnerships, inflated market-size potential or endorsements from other investors. What truly matters is a focus on revenue generation and the scalability of the business model.”
Livestreaming
In the first year of the pandemic, over two dozen livestreaming companies launched — including Sessions, Bulldog DM and Dreamstage — offering fans the ability to stream concerts at home. Among the investors in the reportedly $1 billion industry were Sony Music Entertainment, Scooter Braun, Deezer and Superfly founder Rick Farman, drawn in by the industry veterans leading the companies and high lockdown demand. Over 113 million U.S. internet users viewed livestreams in the second quarter of 2020, according to market research and analysis company MusicWatch.
Ultimately, fans were overwhelmed. Bandsintown aggregated more than 44,000 global livestream events from late March 2020 to August 2021 — and once in-person events resumed, demand dwindled. After a wave of consolidation, only a few companies like Veeps, which Live Nation acquired in January 2021, claim to remain popular. Artist Partner Group/Artist Publishing Group head Mike Caren says he always looks for businesses that offer “a clear road map for their future development,” which in this case ought to have factored in the resumption of in-person live events.
Social Audio
Another area of music tech that flourished during the pandemic, social audio startups from Spotify, Amazon, X (formerly Twitter) and Clubhouse have all shut down or changed strategy in recent months. At its height, Amazon’s Amp, which the company closed in October, let users host their own shows by streaming music and drew high-profile acts like Lil Yachty, Nicki Minaj and Travis Barker for hosting gigs. While one such platform, Stationhead, remains popular, Raine Group partner Joe Puthenveetil is among investors who say it is usually wise to avoid “companies that rely on buzzwords” over time-tested business metrics.
Additional reporting by Kristin Robinson.
This story will appear in the Oct. 21, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Founded in 2017, Techstars Music was known as the premier music technology accelerator, providing funding and support to now-thriving companies like Endel, Splash, Hello Tickets, Community and Replica Studios. The company chose 10 startups each year and provided $120,000 to each, along with mentoring from its network of 316 music and entertainment executives from HYBE, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Concord, Quality Control and more.
Of the 70 startups that Techstars selected, the most successful 21 have gone on to raise over $263 million in follow-on funding since. Despite those successes, managing director Bob Moczydlowsky says that the company chose its final class this past summer — but his career as an investor is far from over.
Why is Techstars Music shutting down?
Even though the way we have been investing has been working, it has been held back by the constraints of an accelerator, which we feel is an outdated model. The amount of capital we can provide is limited. It is also held back by the constraints of labeling it “music.” We want to invest in companies solving problems for music, not music tech companies, but the reality is that founders see “Techstars Music” on the door and they bring us their startup to help kids learn to play a violin. We actually believe instruments will become irrelevant and software will mainly replace them. Our thesis now is we want to fund the future of entertainment, self-expression and live events. This changes almost nothing in how we have already been operating and evaluating companies, but we want this thesis publicly understood.
Why are accelerators outdated?
The accelerator is a great product. It was designed around the time of the financial crisis of 2008. Because angel and pre-seed investors largely disappeared, accelerators fit a need and had great returns. Plus, it helped new companies get the mentorship they needed. Now the cost of running a business — talent, travel, etc. — has grown. Smart founders can now find online most of the information accelerators provide on how to structure a company. The economic deal that accelerators offer to founders has not evolved in that time, so every year, the accelerator is providing the same amount of capital investment, buying the same amount of equity from founders, but that capital is buying fewer and fewer things … We need to make more investments and do it on a rolling, year-round basis. We need to provide more capital too so companies can better leverage the connections we can give them.
What does the future of your investing look like post-Techstars Music?
The goal is to be the best investor in this category. To do so we need to make more investments and do it on a rolling, year-round basis. We need to provide more capital too, so companies can leverage the connections we can give them better.
You’re not trying to invest in music companies but “invest in companies solving problems for music.” Can you explain what that means?
Music startups typically do not generate venture returns … You also have competitors like Apple, Amazon and Google that use music as a loss leader for other products. That makes investing in that sort of music startup very difficult, especially a pre-seed investor like us.
Because streaming has become the dominant way we are listening to music, it has altered a lot of other habits around it as a consequence … I want to invest in companies solving problems for music, like Community, a direct-messaging service. It’s not musical at all, but it is used by artists and enables them to connect to their fans directly better than ever.
Do you think it is helpful, given investors know how tough music businesses are to run, to define themselves as something besides primarily a music company?
Let me be clear: You cannot change how you define your company to make investors happy, or you will not raise capital, but you need to be savvy as a founder about how you present your business and find investors who are looking for you. One of the myths about raising venture capital is that founders persuade investors to invest in them. Investors are out there looking for companies to invest in all day long, every day. We are just trying to find companies that match our thesis.
We think about it like this: we see the problems the music business has. We see how music and entertainment are going to change over the years, so let’s invest in the things that solve the problems or get us closer to those new realities, not just saying “Hey, let’s see all the music tech startups.”
Do you think this is a particularly fruitful time for investors, given the rapid rise of AI, the maturation of streaming, etc.?
There is more opportunity and more radical change coming in the next five to 10 years than we’ve had in the last decade. The last 10 years were about maturing the streaming market and putting rights owners and artists on stable financial footing. The music business is now as big as it has ever been by revenue, but growth is slowing in the number of new subscribers. We’re at a point where music streaming 1.0 is perfected — what does streaming 2.0 look like? We’re shutting Techstars Music down so that we can come back with the right vehicle for the next 10 years.
In your crystal ball, what do you think Streaming 2.0 looks like?
If Streaming 1.0 was about making all the music play, Streaming 2.0 should be about being able to play with all the music.
Your thesis focuses not just on music now, but live events, self-expression and entertainment altogether. Do you see these sectors converging?
Absolutely. What is the difference between an athlete, a musician, a TV star at this point in terms of the media they deliver? They all have podcasts, documentaries, merchandise, fashion lines — of course, they all have their specialty, but I think it is evident that there will be even more convergence coming soon.
This story will appear in the Oct. 21, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Mike Shinoda has long incorporated new tech into both his solo work (like the Beat Saber VR pack and sci-fi/horror web video game that helped launch his recent single “Already Over”) and his music with Linkin Park (like the AI-generated visuals used in the recent music video for unearthed band demo “Lost”). But the artist-producer has also become a key investor in music technology — starting with Linkin Park’s Machine Shop Ventures, which launched in 2015 as a mix of venture capital projects and live-music activations, and now more recently on his own. Since April 2022, he has also served as community innovation adviser for Warner Recorded Music, providing a forward-thinking artist’s perspective on subjects like Web3 and AI.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“With labels and future tech, I feel like doors are opening to new types of artists,” Shinoda says. “At a certain point, you wouldn’t have considered a content creator on a social platform to be a music artist. Now you can! In the future, those doors might also be open to nontraditional projects that are pushing the boundaries of what it is to be an artist.”
Have you been surprised by the degree of industry focus on AI this year, or did you see it coming?
Unless you were already deep in the trenches, I think AI hit everybody in a similar way — it blew up very big, very fast — but part of that is people developing complex things behind the scenes. Once some of the general concepts about how one could use AI became more widely known — and the concerns and the creativity, all the different positive and negative sides of it — people started releasing things, and you started getting a sense of how fast it’s moving and all the things we could do.
It’s exciting and it’s new, but you know, I come from an illustration background, and that artist community was up in arms immediately, saying, “Hey, guys, this technology is stealing from us. These are copyrighted images, and it’s pulling them and riffing off of them to make new things.” That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
How much has being an artist informed how you interact with these new technologies and potentially invest in them?
Being an artist, there are times when you are relied on to develop a vision of something, and it needs to come from you — you are responsible for it, you curate it, you collaborate with other people to make it the best it can be. And as part of that, you’re also in charge of communicating it, of accepting criticism and sorting through ideas. Whether as a kid growing up doing drawing and painting and graphic design, to everything with the band and all of our releases, that skill set carries over to a lot of the founders that I’ve worked with and had the chance to meet over time.
What is an early highlight of your own investing career?
I was one of many investors and advisers when Spotify came to the U.S. To be honest, it wasn’t a lot of money — but it was fascinating to talk with Daniel [Ek] and his team as they were in the midst of the huge cultural shift that happened.
Which areas of music tech are you most interested in right now?
One thing that has been on my mind is that with new technology comes new responsibilities. Historically, artists have been on the end of this equation where their work gets treated like it doesn’t have very much value. When you’re a smaller artist, you go, “Well, this is just the way it is. This is how I get to the point where people hear me for the first time, so I’m going to give away everything for free and just play that game.” And then when you get to a certain point, you realize, “Oh, my gosh. My stuff really does have value. How do I capture that value?”
Because of the changes in technology, different companies developing new things are trying to take a big bite out of the apple that is the artist’s intellectual property. For any artist that hears me talking about this, I hope that it occurs to them: It’s your job to protect the work, to put a value on it, and that value might actually be higher than other people might say it’s worth.
Additional reporting by Kristin Robinson.
This story will appear in the Oct. 21, 2023, issue of Billboard.
Whether they’re angel investors offering startups tens of thousands or venture capital power players with hundreds of millions, some of the shrewdest minds in and around the music business are using their expertise to reinvest in the tools of its future. The investors profiled here are just a sampling of the many focusing on new music technology right now; some of their peers prefer to keep their dealings private, while plenty more music executives turned investors have bet on areas other than music technology. Others are interested in music tech but aren’t actively investing. But with generative artificial intelligence, virtual reality and advancements in live-music technology on the horizon, the thought leaders highlighted here see the industry at a “tipping point” — and the next generation of companies may fundamentally change the way the music business works.
The Majors
The Big Three music groups have invested in tech platforms tied to fashion, gaming, music creation and even battling dementia — and executives say there’s more to come.
In February, on his first quarterly earnings call as the new CEO of Warner Music Group (WMG), Robert Kyncl laid out a future of “meaningful upside” for the music business: “As technology opens up emerging economies, the industry’s addressable market will continue to expand even further,” Kyncl told analysts. On top of that, he added, “innovation is constantly creating new-use cases for music, giving us the opportunity to diversify our revenue sources.”
As the major labels navigate a landscape increasingly dominated by streaming platforms and digital creation apps like BandLab and Boomy, it’s not surprising they have eagerly invested over $1 billion, according to label sources, in the nascent technology companies that have the potential to help them diversify and increase their revenue sources.
In the last four years, WMG has invested in gaming platform Roblox, digital fashion retailer DRESSX and music generator Lifescore, which is powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Sony Music Entertainment has backed another music creation (and collaboration) platform, Tully; social platform Fave; and Techstars Music, an accelerator program that provided funding and mentorship to promising music technology startups. (It was quietly shuttered after this summer’s class, according to managing director Bob Moczydlowsky.)
“It is always a highlight for us to support visionary entrepreneurs in developing innovative music tech and to help drive experimentation with new products and revenue models that enhance creativity, consumer experiences and overall value and utility for our creative partners and artists,” SME senior vp of strategy and investments Angela Lopes says.
Universal Music Group eschews venture capital investments, preferring to offer seed money, mentoring and other support for startups. The company has gotten behind two health-related music apps: Endel, which creates personalized AI-generated soundscapes to foster focus and sleep, and Music Health, the company behind Vera, which is designed to help those suffering from dementia, as well as next-generation radio broadcasting toolkit Super-HiFi. UMG senior vp of digital innovation strategy and business development Kristen Bender said in a statement that the company’s “music DNA — incubation, connectivity, mentorship [and] strategic partner network — is the greatest asset we can provide early-stage companies.”
It’s likely that the volume of these investments will only increase. Lopes says, “We continue to focus on strategic investment opportunities” in the tech sector. And on the earnings call, Kyncl said WMG will be “reallocating our internal resources in order to invest in technology and drive not only more tools for monetization for creators but also greater efficiencies for us.” —ELIAS LEIGHT
Music Companies
Willard AhdritzFounder/chairman, Kobalt; CEO, Ahdritz & Co.
Willard Ahdritz
Paul Brissman
Recent investments: Dice, un:hurdInterests: Mobile ticketing, data-driven marketing
As founder and chairman of Kobalt — a publishing administration company that used a technology-first approach to disrupt the world of music publishing — Ahdritz has always had a forward-thinking approach to the music business. In recent years, he has been investing in other newcomers using technology to power music innovation, including popular mobile ticketing app Dice, and he has taken on an investment and advisory role in un:hurd, which uses data to help artists run successful digital marketing campaigns.
Mike CarenFounder/CEO, Artist Partner Group/Artist Publishing Group
Mike Caren
Elisabeth Caren
Recent investments: beatBread, Sound.me, Release.GlobalInterests: AI, music production tools, label tools
The label/publishing entrepreneur entered investing by acquiring music catalogs, but in recent years has expanded his focus to music technology and related startups. He says various forms of music tech are worthwhile “for both financial growth and for the good of the industry.” Caren hopes that the new companies he backs can “unleash creativity for those with huge imagination and limited knowledge” as well as economic and relationship-based limitations. But whether these results come through AI, augmented reality, traditional or currently unheard-of means “is less important for me.”
Startup red flag: “I try to avoid great decks without functioning software. I want to invest in companies with a minimum viable product I can use immediately and a clear road map for their future development.”
Neil JacobsonFounder/CEO, Hallwood Media; partner, Hallwood Media Ventures
Neil Jacobson
Clay Wescott
Recent investments: Disco, Splice, SoundfulInterests: AI, music production tools, creator services, marketplace platforms
Jacobson, former president of Geffen Records and founder of songwriter-producer management powerhouse Hallwood Media, brings decades of experience at labels and publishers to investing. Hallwood Media Ventures was born out of a special purpose acquisition company Jacobson launched in February 2021 with partner Todd Lowen, raising $230 million for a publicly listed vehicle with the intent of merging with a high-growth, music-related business. Now, almost three years later, Hallwood is unencumbered by the restrictions of a SPAC and looking to invest “in the range of $25 million for minority stakes, up to $250 million for larger stakes or full takeouts,” says Jacobson, who adds that though the firm is seeking companies throughout the music sector, “music technology seems to be where we are spending a lot of our time.” Still, as technology evolves, Jacobson envisions that great managers, like those on staff at Hallwood, will be “more critical than ever. The world, especially music, is changing at a pace we’ve never seen before. The need for management teams to react quickly and intelligently will only be amplified.”
Words an investor should live by: “ ‘Show me the money!’ We say that half-jokingly, but companies need to demonstrate the ability to generate EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] … We look for businesses that are executing on a responsible plan that is ready to be scaled with our help — both financially and strategically.”
Nick JarjourFounder/CEO, JarjourCo
Nick Jarjour
Dan Franco
Recent investments: Soundful, mayk.it, HIFI, Xposure, TrillerInterests: Music and gaming, livestreaming, virtual concerts, AI, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), fintech
Jarjour, an entrepreneur and manager for songwriter Starrah, says his first mentor told him: “Don’t just invest in companies. Advise them, consult them, sit on their boards.” So when he provides funding to a startup, he often assumes an advisory role too, as he did with mayk.it, HIFI, Xposure and more. He likens the role of an investor in a fledgling company to A&R, where his career began, and he aims to spot “hit companies” much as he would a song.
In the next five years, music tech will…: “See more artists and celebrity investors, more music and gaming partnerships, more growth in VR/AR music experiences … [There will be] a digital transformation for labels, funds and publishers propelled by breakthroughs like AI and the democratization of things.”
Andrew KahnHead of Crush Ventures
Andrew Kahn
Crush Ventures
Investments: Splice, Audioshake, Sound.xyz, CreateSafe, Rhythm.fmInterests: Fan technology, music production tools, creator tools
Alongside colleagues Aaron Matusow and Dan Kruchkow, Kahn leads the venture capital division for longtime independent management company Crush Music. With Crush Ventures, Kahn and his team make investment decisions that align with the overall company ethos: “We look to invest in building companies that could impact how we manage and grow the careers of Crush Music artists, who are also pop-culture brands,” Kahn says. That’s why the team is so interested in working with companies that create tools empowering artists, like Splice, Audioshake and CreateSafe. In the next five years, Kahn says he sees these companies “narrowing the gap between novice and pro.”
Startup red flags: “We try to avoid founders who are not living the culture of the market they are trying to enter or feeling the pain acutely of the problem they are trying to solve. Other nits are requests to sign [nondisclosure agreements] too quickly and early-stage companies using agencies to build core products.”
Naoki OsadaCEO, Avex USA; founder, Future of Music Fund
Naoki Osada
Caris Yeoman
Recent investments: Wave, Endel, Liminal Space, Strangeloop StudiosInterests: Metaverse, 3D, live experiences, virtual artists, music production tools
When he’s not running label and publishing operations at Avex USA, the thriving American outpost of the Japanese entertainment company, Osada is vetting emerging companies to invest in through Avex USA’s corporate venture capital division. Called the Future of Music Fund, Osada says he invests “in a selective, boutique way” in companies he feels build “immersive multisensory experiences of music” — like Endel’s personalized soundscapes that promote relaxation and Wave’s high-tech virtual concert production tools. So far, the fund has invested about $5 million and has now expanded to $25 million “based on the past successes.” Still, Osada notes that due to saturation in the market, he doesn’t “see quite as many mind-blowing early-stage companies these days as five years ago.”
Words an investor should live by: “In general, [our] motto is ‘innovate or die.’ We must constantly become different for the better in aspects of business/life to survive.”
Hazel SavageAngel investor; vp of music intelligence, SoundCloud
Hazel Savage
Alison Emerick
Recent investments: un:hurd, AudioShake, mayk.itInterests: AI and “all areas of deep tech in the music industry”
After building her own successful startup, Musiio, which SoundCloud acquired in 2022, Savage says she is “proud to invest in exceptional founders” as an angel investor. “I am looking for a founder or co-founders I believe in. They need that magic spark where when I look at them, I just know I could be working for them in 10 years and whatever they do, they will be successful,” she says. Since getting started, Savage has invested just shy of $1 million, the bulk of which has gone toward forms of AI that can ease pain points in the music business. She says she “learned from [her] own cap table about the kind of investor [she] wanted to be.”
In the next five years, music tech will…: “I think generative AI is here to stay … If we learn how to harness the tech and make it work for the musicians and the industry, it will be a net win all ’round. I also think we are evolving out of the existing stage of music streaming and into a new era where we all learn and figure out how to make sure the money fans want to spend goes directly to the artists they want to support.”
Agencies
Phil QuistInvestor, Connect Ventures; music/emerging tech agent, CAA
Phil Quist
Courtesy of CAA
Recent investments: Royal, Deep VooDooInterests: AI, music production tools, smart ticketing, live-concert experience enhancements
Kendrick Lamar’s innovative music video for “The Heart Part 5” — which used AI to morph the rapper’s face into the likenesses of Kanye West, O.J. Simpson, Kobe Bryant, Nipsey Hussle and Will Smith — was made possible by Deep VooDoo, an AI visual effects company and one of Quist and Connect Ventures’ recent investments. Since Connect’s establishment, Quist and his colleagues have invested “eight figures” into music-related technology that empowers creative innovation (like “The Heart Part 5”) because Quist feels “we are nearing a tipping point in the music industry” and a coming decade that’s “transformative and full of opportunity.” He believes the greatest opportunities in music lie in evolving the live-concert experience, investing in the fan-artist relationship, AI and the democratization of music creation, and he envisions a future where the Internet of Things finds its place in music, “transforming everyday objects into musical instruments or interfaces.”
Words an investor should live by: “Warren Buffett once said, ‘Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.’ This quote reminds me to approach both investing and life with a contrarian mindset, not being swayed by the prevailing market sentiment or popular trends, but to rather look toward the future.”
Sam WickPartner, UTA; head, UTA Ventures
Sam Wick
UTA
Recent investments: Moment House, Stem, CameoInterests: AI, livestreaming, e-commerce, distribution
As head of UTA Ventures, Wick consistently asks founders the same five questions: “What is the problem? How big is the market? How are you solving it? Why are you the right team to solve it? What is your competitive advantage?” UTA Ventures’ portfolio includes startups from industries as diverse as its client roster, which ranges from music to film/TV to gaming and sports, but it has dipped into music technology with investments in Moment House and Stem. One of the most important considerations for investing in music, Wick says, is remembering that “music defines culture and is continually at the forefront of technological disruption and innovation … Any trend that impacts the arts more broadly will impact music first.”
Words an investor should live by: “A venture investor will make hundreds of investments throughout their career. When all is said and done, your relationships and reputation are paramount … Conduct yourself with integrity.”
Finance
Fred Davis and Joe PuthenveetilPartners, The Raine Group
Joe Puthenveetil (left) and Fred Davis photographed on March 21, 2023 at The Raine Group in London.
Paul Stuart
Recent investments: SoundCloud, Firebird, Amuse, Rock the BellsInterests: Decentralized distribution, streamlining royalty collection, generative AI
Raine Group partners Davis and Puthenveetil combined their backgrounds — Davis’ as a longtime music attorney, with generational music expertise imparted by his father, Clive Davis, and Puthenveetil’s in advising and investing for Grail Partners and 13 years helping steer Raine’s music and entertainment efforts — to become a dominant music business force. Apart from investing in some of the industry’s fast-growing new music technology firms, they have also had their hands in facilitating many of the industry’s biggest music technology transactions, such as the sale of tech-focused publisher Kobalt to Francisco Partners and the sale of AVL Digital (CD Baby) to Downtown.
In the next five years, music tech will…: “Platforms and distribution will evolve to connect artists directly with fans and unlock opportunities for engagement and monetization beyond streaming,” Puthenveetil says. “Music discovery and consumption will continue to integrate more deeply into other forms of entertainment, particularly in gaming. Music rights management will continue to get more complex and, hopefully, more transparent and efficient for rights holders.”
Bob MoczydlowskyManaging director, Techstars Music
Bob Moczydlowsky
Jen Hall
Recent investments: Endel, Triller, Tribe XR, Strangeloop Studios, Amper MusicInterests: Streaming, music production tools, AI
As the managing director for premier music technology accelerator Techstars Music, Moczydlowsky facilitated 70 pre-seed investments in startups like Endel, Community, Triller and Tribe XR for a total of $8.2 million during the existence of the program that started in 2017 and ended this year. Techstars connected founders not just with money but with mentors from many of the other investors and companies mentioned on this list, including Sony Music Entertainment, HYBE and Warner Music Group. “I invest at the earliest possible stage,” Moczydlowsky explains. “So 90% of my process is about the team … At the early stage, what matters are the people and their passion for the market and the problem.”
In the next five years, music tech will…: “I’m most interested in what comes next in this mature streaming market we’re entering. If music streaming 1.0 was about solving the problem of ‘make all the music play,’ I think music streaming 2.0 is going to be allowing fans a way to ‘play with all of the music.’ ”
Shachar OrenFounder/CEO, Sound Media Ventures
Shachar Oren
Courtesy of Shachar Oren
Recent investments: Boomy, Tribe XR, Dance FightInterests: Generative AI, blockchain, user-generated content, streaming, metaverse
For 18 years, Oren was CEO of the startup he founded — business-to-business music licensing platform Neurotic Media — which Peloton acquired in 2018. After the sale, he moved to Peloton as its vp of music before founding Sound Media Ventures, where he applied the skills he learned as an entrepreneur to invest in other founders’ businesses. Since then, Sound Media has invested about $500,000 in total seed funding for music-related startups like Boomy, Tribe XR and Dance Fight in addition to significant investments in other areas of entertainment and technology. As Oren puts it, his firm offers founders more than money: “Our experience and expertise in the music space, along with our relationships, give us the ability to drive growth for our founders.”
Startup red flag: “Testing the product and getting a feel for the market fit it can find, or better yet, interviewing customers and assessing how passionate they feel about the solution is key. If one can’t establish a clear market fit for a product or service, that’s a clear warning.”
Guy OsearyCo-founder, Maverick Management; co-founder, Sound Ventures
Guy Oseary
Amanda Edwards/Getty Images
Recent investments: Community, SeatGeek, Shazam, OpenAI, Stability AIInterest: AI
After making his name as a superstar manager and music executive, Oseary has more recently turned his attention to venture capital and funding the future of innovation, both inside and outside music. In 2015, he and co-founder Ashton Kutcher launched Sound Ventures, where he says he leans on his skills at spotting talent as a former A&R executive to find the next big company. At the National Music Publishers’ Association’s annual meeting this year, Oseary gave a keynote address that focused on AI: “There’s a whole new wave that’s happening, and it’s happening very quickly. That means things can scale quickly,” he said. He has two funds dedicated to AI; one has raised $200 million to make investments specifically in “foundational AI models,” which Oseary feels will be the bedrock of all companies in the future. “Our thesis is that everyone is going to plug into one of these foundational models. In a few years, I’m going to ask whatever company I’m working with, ‘Which one do you use?’ And they’ll say Google or OpenAI or Anthropic — it’ll be one of five or six companies that you’re going to put all your information into and use that model to help run your business.”
Shara SenderoffCo-founder, Born Ready; co-founder, Raised in Space
Shara Senderoff
TCK Photo
Recent investments: Audigent/Music IQ, Songclip, The WaveXR, Spatial Labs, Altered State MachineInterests: AI, blockchain, royalty collection, music production tools, AR
Through funds Born Ready and Raised in Space, Senderoff has invested approximately $30 million into music tech startups during her career. These days, she is most interested in the evolution of the creator economy and how generative AI tools will affect it, but her investments range widely, from blockchain-based solutions for royalty collection to generative music to virtual reality. “I’m relentlessly focused on viability of a business model and its alignment with market timing and demands,” she says.
Startup red flag: “Consistently investing in cutting-edge technologies, such as blockchain and AI, before they hit the mainstream has made it easy for me to spot hype cycles while also enabling efficient discernment of innovation from buzzwords. I pride myself on deep diligence.”
Matt SpetzlerPartner/co-head of Europe, Francisco Partners
Matt Spetzler
Courtesy of Francisco Partners
Recent investments: Kobalt (acquisition), AMRA (acquisition), Native Instruments, iZotope, Plugin Alliance, Brainworx, JKBXInterests: AI, music production, royalty collection, business-to-business music licensing
It has been a landmark year for Spetzler and his colleagues at Francisco Partners, which purchased tech-focused music publisher Kobalt and its global digital collection society, AMRA. The team also has invested significantly in music creation tools because, as Spetzler puts it, “technology has been, and will remain, a driving force behind empowering independent artists and creators.” His goal is to make Francisco Partners “one of the top technology and media investors” globally — and given that its last three years of investment into its audio portfolio has led to a combined value of over $4 billion, the company is well on its way toward that goal.
In the next five years, music tech will…: “I believe the power and economics will shift toward the artist/creator, and this empowerment will be driven by technology and increasing transparency.”
This story will appear in the Oct. 21, 2023, issue of Billboard.
TikTok has launched TikTok Music, its new premium-only music streaming service, in Australia, Singapore and Mexico. The news arrives just months after the company announced its closed, beta version of the streamer for those three territories in July.
As part of the launch, TikTok Music is adding in new features like Party It (a personalized collaborative listening feature), FYP Tuning (swipable music discovery tool, letting users choose different musical scenes and moods), and Tonik (a music discovery personal assistant that is powered by Open AI’s ChatGPT).
With Tonik, users can search for an artist, track or playlist, ask about concerts and music news, learn about the stories behind the music and more.
The new streaming service has not yet made it to most of the major music markets around the world, including the U.S., but its interest in combining social media savvy with music listening could make it a strong new competitor to the established services like Spotify, Apple and Amazon as it expands worldwide.
Already, TikTok as a social platform has wielded great influence over the incumbent streamers. For example, Spotify announced earlier this year that they would integrate a new vertical, swipe-able discovery feed into their app, sparking comparisons to the short-form video app. Spotify also recently recruited some of TikTok’s most popular music influencers – like Ari Elkins and Dev Lemons – to help popularize its now-defunct live audio app, Spotify Live.
Other new features on the app include:
Sync With TikTok: sync your TikTok and TikTok Music accounts to enjoy songs from the social app
Play TikTok Hits: Stream the full versions of TikTok viral songs
Seamless Music Discovery With TikTok: Record your music discovery journey in TikTok and explore the songs in TikTok Music
Discover More Personalized Music: Swipe up and down to explore songs just for you
Discover New & Emerging Artists: Find your new favourite artist
Find Your Music Community: Express yourself through comments, enjoy behind-the-scenes stories, and connect with like-minded music lovers
Sing Along With Real-Time Lyrics: Sing and rap with built-in lyrics that play automaticallyCo-create collaborative Playlists with Friends: Making music better together
Import your Music Library: With just one click, import external playlists and play them through TikTok Music
Name That Song: identify any song you’re listening to with Song Catch
“We are pleased to publicly launch TikTok Music, a new kind of service that combines the power of music discovery on TikTok with a best-in-class streaming service. TikTok Music will make it easy for people to save, download and share their favourite viral tracks from TikTok,” says Ole Obermann, global head of music business development, TikTok. “We are excited about the opportunities TikTok Music presents for both music fans and artists, and the great potential it has for driving significant value to the music industry.”