Apple To Acquire Shazam For $400 Million [REPORT]

Apple is reportedly days away from acquiring music and audio recognition app Shazam for a $400 million. The startup, which had been valued as high as $1 billion, had previously raised $143 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins, DN Capital and IVP, as well as, Sony Music, Universal Music and…

Full Text Of Spotify, Tencent Announcement

I n a deal certain to cause concern among labels and music publishers, Spotify, China’s Tencent Holdings and its subsidiary Tencent Music today announced joint equity investments that strengthen their bargaining power exponentially. RELATED: Spotify, China’s Tencent Announce Deal That Strengthens Their Negotiating Power Exponentially Here is the full text…

IDAGIO Raises $9.5M To Expand Classical Music Streaming Service

[UPDATED] Berlin based IDAGIO has raised a $9.5 million Series A round to expand its classical music focused streaming service. Investors Tengelmann Ventures led the round and previous investor b-to-v Partners expanded its position. "The new capital will help us further expand our technology leadership and increase our commitment to…

Distribution And Label Service Company Ditto Music Expands

One of many music aggregators out there, Ditto is growing to become one of the bigger players in distribution and label services, and has been rapidly expanding to become one of the major player in digital distribution along with companies like TuneCore and CD Baby. _________________________ Guest post by Bobby…

Solving the Music Startup Catch-22

[UPDATED] The difficulty, time and cost of licensing music has stymied an untold number of startups and scared off countless more investors. Crunch Digital has created a solution. Their Digital Music Sandbox will offer music startups a direct conduit to limited term music licensing without advances or minimum guarantees; and…

Music Messenger Bot Startup I AM POP Opens UK Office

Amsterdam-based Facebook Messenger music bot startup I AM POP has hired Sam Taylor as its London-based Chief Commercial Officer. The appointment coincides with the opening of a new office in Shoreditch, East London, which will house the company’s marketing and partnerships teams. Taylor joins after nearly two years as UK…

6 Concert & Event Startups To Watch In The Coming Year

As the event technology renaissance continues, numerous companies are reshaping the event industry whether it’s through apps or AI. Here we look at six event startups to keep an eye on as we move forward into 2018. ___________________________ Guest post by Katie Sawyer of Eventbrite Event technology is going through…

Catching Up With Despacito’s Luis Fonsi: An Artist Q&A

Undeniably one of the biggest songs of 2017, the chart topping, record breaking "Despacito" is also up for a number of awards. Here SoundExchange sat down to chat with Luis Fonsi, one of the artists behind the hit single. _______________________ Guest post from SoundExchange When we look back on the…

UnitedMasters On Closing The Music Data Chasm: The Inspiration Driving This $70 Million Startup

UnitedMasters launched it artist services platform this week with $70 million in funding from Google and Andreessen Horowitz; and a promise to "free musicians from dependencies on the old model while increasing their income tenfold". Using data to understand and monetize fan behavior is at the core of their plan…

Project Music Opens Applications For 2018 Startup Accelerator

The Nashville Entrepreneur Center has begun accepting application for its 2018 Project Music Portfolio music industry accelerator program. After running the accelerator for 3 years, they have leveraged participant feedback to create Portfolio, a more customized program designed to have a more meaningful impact on the startup entrepreneurs involved. _____________________________…