Midemlab has named 20 finalists for 2018. Now that SXSW has downgraded the category, this startup competition is, along with a handful music tech incubators like LA’s Techstars Music, Nashville’s Project Music and London’s Abbey Road Red, the best early indicator of what’s coming next in music tech.
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The 11th annual edition of world-leading music startup competition Midemlab will this year during the massive Midem global music industry convention in Vannes, France June 5-8. This year’s competition is sponsored by music streaming platform Deezer.
The 20 Midemlab nominees for 2018 are divided into four categories.
Music Creation & Education
- AIVA (France) uses artificial Intelligence to compose “the music of the future”
- MXX (UK) is an AI engine which atomises and re-constructs stereo music
- Skoove (Germany) is a music learning platform offering interactive online piano lessons
- Taplyrica (UK) teaches languages through the power of music
- Voice Magix (Spain) automates synchronisation between lyrics and recorded singing voices
Music Discovery & Distribution
- Boreas (USA) is a discovery platform for emerging musicians which mimics natural selection
- Laylo (USA) sees fans compete to find music first and spread it around the world
- LICKD (UK) offers commercial music licensing for social video
- Listen! (France) is an app for personalised and global musical curation
- Louise (France) – is an app for sharing music live with your friends
Marketing & Data/Analytics
- Asaii (USA) uses machine learning to identify the industry’s next big hits (no video provided)
- Gigz (France) offers personalised and geolocalized recommendations of concerts & more
- Muso.AI (USA) presents itself as “LinkedIn for music”
- NumberEight (UK) predicts user context through sensors and artificial intelligence
- Seated (USA) empowers artists to take control of their ticketing experience (no video provided)
Experiential technologies – VR/AR, High Resolution, IoT & Hardware
- Enhancia (France) is the maker of Neova, the MIDI Ring controller which allows artists to express their creativity
- Flexound (Finland) is an audio-equipped pillow which “lets your skin do the listening”
- Jooki (Belgium) is a smart music player for families
- Landmrk (UK) describes itself as “Pokémon GO for branded content”
- WowTune (Hong Kong) allows you to create VR voice & song-selfies… like in this Trump/Obama spoof video
The winners will be chosen in June in Cannes by a jury that includes artist and entrepreneur Ryan Leslie; Deezer‘s Aurélien Hérault; Kima Ventures’ Eléonore Oudea; Tencent Africa‘s Brett Loubster; StartHer‘s Joanna Kirk; Sony Music‘s Guillaume Quelet; The BBC‘s Kate Russel; Midemlab 2017 winner Soundcharts‘ David Weiszfeld and more.