Carl Timpone
- Audio startups are changing how we listen to and discover music.
- A new crop of companies has emerged to help artists and other audio creators build businesses.
- We spoke with six audio-startup founders who shared the pitch decks they used to raise funds.
Innovation in music tech is on the rise.
Startups are building new ways for artists and creators to make and distribute songs and other audio.
Some companies, including social-entertainment apps like TikTok and YouTube, are making it easier for artists to get discovered. Platforms like Roblox and Discord have added new formats for artists to reach fans. And generative AI tools like Suno have created a tidal wave of new music while raising new questions about artist compensation in the age of AI.
One area of focus among audio startups is finding ways to help artists interact with their most loyal listeners, sometimes called superfans.
Sesh built a platform that lets users add "fan cards" of their favorite artists to their smartphone wallets, for example. Hangout created a group-listening platform that enables music fans to stream songs together.
"Even with a hundred superfans, you're going to be able to make a living instead of needing to do extra jobs for you to be able to pay for your instruments or your music career," Sesh's CEO, Iñigo-Hubertus Bunzl Pelayo, told Business Insider.
Other upstarts are focused on building internal tools for artists and their teams. Offtop built a Dropbox-style platform to help music collaborators share files, for instance. And RealCount offers data analytics for artists on their ticket sales.
Read BI's list of 14 promising music startups
Investors have poured millions of dollars into audio startups over the last few years. The category has drawn funding from institutional firms like SoftBank Ventures Korea and record labels like Sony Music.
BI spoke with six audio-startup founders who've raised money in the past few years about their fundraising process. They each shared the pitch decks they used to win over investors.
Read the pitch decks that helped 6 audio startups raise millions of dollars:
Note: Pitch decks are sorted by investment stage and size of round.
Series A
Seed
- Hangout, a social-listening platform: $8.2 million (26 pages)
- Sesh, a fan-engagement platform: $5 million (13 pages)
- Chartmetric, a music data startup: $2 million (46 pages)
- Supercast, a podcast subscriptions platform: $2 million (20 pages)
Other
Geoff Weiss, JP Mangalindan, Nhari Djan, and Michael Espinosa previously contributed reporting.
Chartmetric
Chartmetric is a data-and-analytics tool that enables music-industry professionals to track the digital performance of songs.
The company created a platform for customers like record labels and artists to review streaming and social-media data all in one place.
"There is more and more data that artists and record labels measure and that they care about, and the importance of the data changes over time," Chartmetric founder and CEO Sung Cho told Insider.
Read the 46-page pitch deck that the company used to raise $2 million in seed funding
Magroove
Brazil-based Magroove helps independent musicians distribute music on global platforms like Spotify and iTunes, and runs a music-discovery app.
A prime selling point for artists on the platform is its affordable distribution services. The company is also testing features to help artists earn more, including a digital-store offering.
"I had my history as trying to make it as a musician, knowing absolutely nothing to now being in the position to help other artists and serve them with things that I didn't have back then," cofounder Vítor Cunha told Insider.
See the 21-page pitch deck Magroove used to raise $1.6 million in seed funding
Slip.stream
Slip.stream built a subscription service for creators that opens up access to a library of royalty-free music and sound effects.
Roughly 40% of its clients are livestreaming gamers, the company told Insider.
The company raised in June a $7.5 million Series A in a round led by Sony Music Entertainment.
"The 'majors' were not our first target – we initially wanted to go the classic VC route," Slip.stream CMO Jesse Korwin told Insider at the time. "We realized that having one of the major music companies as a backer provided a ton of validity and support for our vision."
Read the 13-page pitch deck that Slip.stream used to raise $7.5 million in funding
Spoon Radio
Spoon Radio is a live audio platform founded in South Korea that expanded to the US in late 2019.
The platform's users tune into different audio rooms, similar to the Clubhouse app, where creators host listening sessions. Users can also tip livestreamers with virtual tokens called "spoons."
Read the 15-page pitch deck for Spoon, which has raised more than $59 million in funding
Supercast
Supercast built a subscription platform designed specifically for podcast creators.
The company launched in September 2019 and raised $2 million in seed funding from investors like Form Capital and Table Management.
"The world of podcasting is sitting on a goldmine, and they don't even know it," said CEO Jason Sew Hoy. "They've done the hard work of building up the audiences that they may be monetizing by ads. But they have an entirely new additive revenue stream that they can switch on with listeners' subscriptions."
Read the 20-page pitch deck the company used to raise $2 million
Courtesy of Ultimate Playlist
Ultimate Playlist is a music-marketing platform that incentivizes users to listen to and rate songs in exchange for daily cash prizes.
Each day, the company features a new set of 40 songs on the app. Eventually, the company plans to charge rights holders around $200 to $300 for a song to be included.
"There's not a lot out there for this middle-class artist," cofounder Shevy Smith told Insider. "One key component of Ultimate Playlist is that it isn't anchored by superstars."
Read the 9-page pitch deck that the company used to raise $2 million
JP Mangalindan and Michael Espinosa contributed additional reporting. This story was originally published in January 16, 2023.