Let us “amuse” you!
«Ad & PR Lab» in Panteion University and Ms. Betty Tsakarestou has asked us to describe a innovative start-up music company. And, of we course, we came up with the idea to describe to all of you, the “Amuse” Application. Let’s Start!
“Amuse” is one of the most known musical apps worldwide. Amuse was founded in Stockholm in 2015 by a global team of music industry experts including Diego Farias, Christian Wilsson, Jimmy Brodd, Andreas Ahlenius and Guy Parry.
“Amuse” can be characterized as a revolutionary step in the field of music distribution. Instead of charging artists any kind of fee to upload music to sites like Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, “Amuse” allows anybody to sign up and distribute their new tunes completely free of charge. The aim of this start-up company is to catch the next superstars that haven’t been discovered yet. Plus, it is the best way to attract a large group of potential hitmakers, as “Amuse” provides to them a service they desperately need at no cost. And this is something more than important at our days.
In July 2017, will.i.am joined the co-founder team of “Amuse”. This was the moment, when the Swedish start-up business changed. Since then, “Amuse” helps young and talented artists, all around the world, to sign their first contract and to become the «next big thing» in the music industry. And if you are curious of learning “how”, here is the answer:
By watching carefully what each music sample or track is doing online, the team at Amuse can quickly catch when something special is happening with a song, identifying it as a potential worldwide hit before it blown up. At that point, the Swedish startup switches into record label mode, offering semi-traditional deals to those it believes may have a bright career in the future.
As of the today, the company claims to have worked with more than 15,000 artists, and many of them have signed a 50/50 record deal, which proves that “Amuse” is eager and able to promote them heavily with pitching to radio stations and online events in the most-used social media.
THE REVIEWS:
“Consider itself as a reimagined record label, Amuse is aiming to ease problems rised due to big advance payments bringing a new royalites payment system. “Fast Forward”, as the program is named, uses machine learning coupled with Amuse’s “vast access to music consumption intelligence” to crunch the numbers on precisely how much an artist or group stands to make in the next six months of their career — and then pays them for those future profits.
With Diego Farias and a team of other industry figures, Amuse came into the chaotic music-tech market in 2015 and quickly drew interest across the global business for its free music distribution service, which lets artists keep their royalties and rights and links up to major streaming platforms like Apple Music and Spotify. It expanded from Europe into the U.S. and Latin America last year, and has worked with thousands of artists on around 100,000 different projects.”
Despite it’s shortf lifetime, Amuse has established a key place among the startups being active in the music distribution field. According to EU-Startups.com, the leading online publication with a focus on startups in Europe, Amuse is one of the 20 startups that considers to have the potential to make an impact in 2019 and beyond as the relationship between music and technology will only deepen in the future. In this list are also concluded Diggers Factory, Endel, ForTunes, Katch, Keakie, Traveler, OW1Audio, Soundcharts and Warm.
Moreover, Amuse could be viewed as a serious threat to traditional distributors, though switching away from a long-term distribution relationship is no easy feat. Also has attracted participation from a number of big-label vets, as Edgar Berger from Sony Music International and Jörg Mohaupt from Warner Music Group.
“Amuse” claims that the smallest advance it has given out so far is $400 dollars and the largest $100,000. If an artist becomes more popular while using the service, then that’s factored in and they get a new offer from the company. Although it’s early days, “Amuse” says that nearly 100 artists offered the “Fast Forward Advance” have so far accepted, out of roughly 400.
In addition, it has announced a Series A funding round of $15.5m co-led by Lakestar and Raine Ventures, one of the investment funds owned by merchant-bank “The Raine Group”, which took a significant stake in SoundCloud last year.
“We are very excited by Amuse’s vision to reinvent the traditional record label with technology and data, analogous to how our portfolio company Spotify reinvented music distribution. Diego and his team have reimagined every step of the A&R process from inverting the commercial model to be artist-friendly and discovering new musicians to changing how individual songs are marketed. After their early success in Sweden, this investment will help roll out the model across Europe and the US.” says a music industry genius on musically.com.
If you really love singing or playing an instrument, “Amuse” is the perfect place for a promising beginning in the music industry!
Thank you for your time!
APPENDIX:
- https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/amuse-music-startup-future-royalties-786154/
- https://www.eu-startups.com/2019/02/10-music-tech-startups-to-look-out-for-in-2019/
- https://www.wired.co.uk/article/machine-learning-streaming-music-amuse
- https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/swedish-startup-amuse-closes-15-5m-funding-round/
- https://musically.com/2018/05/23/amuse-raises-15-5m-for-its-next-generation-record-label/
THE VISUALETTE TEAM:
