Techstars Music Accelerator Adds Three New Member Companies for 2018
Concord Music, RecoChoku and Royalty Exchange join Warner Music Group, Harmonix Music Systems, Q Prime Management, Bill Silva Entertainment, Silva Artist Management and Sony Music in supporting startups building new solutions for the music business
A big part of the Techstars Music Accelerator strategy is our deep cooperation with the global music business. We believe cooperation produces greater return on investment. Today, we are thrilled to announce the addition of three new member companies for Techstars Music 2018: Concord Music, RecoChoku, and Royalty Exchange.
This expands our membership to nine companies — Warner Music Group, Concord Music, Harmonix Music Systems, RecoChoku, Q Prime Management, Bill Silva Entertainment, Royalty Exchange, Silva Artist Management, and Sony Music — a truly global consortium of rights owners, hardware and connected device manufacturers, game creators, digital service providers, artist managers and live event promoters.
Techstars Music members provide more than capital, they actually run the program with us: helping at every step of the process, from selection to mentoring to business development and even follow-on investment. Their diversity of skills and talent help the startups in our program gain real global advantage.
Here’s a little bit of info about our new members, and what they’ll bring to Techstars Music 2018:
Concord Music was formed at the beginning of 2015 from the merger of Concord Music Group, one of the world’s leading independent record companies, and The Bicycle Music Company, a premier independent music publisher. Since merging, Concord Music has made a number of acquisitions and strategic investments in other music publishing and record companies, and is now one of the largest integrated music publishing and record companies in the world, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Cleveland, London and Berlin. Concord Music will add an independent label and publisher perspective to the program, while also offering startups access to a deep and diverse set of mentors from their executive ranks.
RecoChoku is perfectly positioned to offer Techstars Music startups insight and opportunity into Japan, currently the №2 music market on Earth. In addition to its on-demand streaming, digital radio and download services, RecoChoku is also expanding into artist development and support, live events and a new music experience business called WIZY. RecoChoku will work with Techstars Music startups on international expansion, both during the recruiting process and within the program.
Royalty Exchange offers a new and innovative way to buy and sell royalties. Their marketplace platform applies modern technology and free market standards to ensure sellers of creative work receive the fair market value, while offering buyers an alternative investment opportunity with openness and fairness. Their experienced executive team, comprised of successful serial entrepreneurs based in Denver, Colorado, will work with startups on financial modeling, pricing strategy, fundraising and operations.
We’re thrilled to have Concord Music, RecoChoku and Royalty Exchange join us in recruiting, selecting, mentoring and investing in startups solving problems for the global music business.
In 2017, we invested in 11 startups (more info here) that have gone on to raise more than $15M collectively. Six of those 11 companies came to LA from outside the United States, a ratio we expect to continue in our 2018 class.
We’ll be making our final selections for 2018 on or around December 15th. So, what kind of startups are we looking for? Techstars Music is for startups working on scalable solutions for:
• New music experiences for home, venue, festival & connected devices
• Music creation, collaboration & sharing
• Direct-to-consumer marketing, ticketing & eCommerce
• Content infrastructure & delivery
• Royalties, reporting, rights management & licensing
• Data mining & machine learning
• Music education for digital natives
• Technology-based artist discovery, management & services
• Event and crowd safety
Is Techstars Music the right accelerator program for you? Take a look at events below and request a meeting to show us what you are working on. Apply online here, with more information available here. Applications close October 15th, so get after it!
See you out there!
Bob Moczydlowsky, @bobmoz
Managing Director, Techstars Music
2018 TECHSTARS MUSIC RECRUITING TOUR:
Thursday, Oct. 12th — Prague, Czech Republic
MEET UP RSVP LINK: PRAGUE
Friday, Oct. 13th — Budapest, Hungary
MEET UP RSVP LINK: BUDAPEST
Saturday, Oct. 14th — Vienna, Austria
MEET UP RSVP LINK: VIENNA
Monday, Oct. 16th — New York, New York, USA
OFFICE HOURS RSVP LINK: NEW YORK
Thursday, Oct.26th — Tokyo, Japan
OFFICE HOURS RSVP LINK: TOKYO
Wednesday, Nov. 1st & Thursday, Nov. 2nd — Los Angeles, CA, USA
OFFICE HOURS RSVP LINK: LOS ANGELES
Tuesday, Nov. 7th — London, England
OFFICE HOURS RSVP LINK: LONDON
Wednesday, Nov. 8th — Lisbon, Portugal
OFFICE HOURS RSVP LINK: LISBON
Friday, Nov. 10th — Berlin, Germany
OFFICE HOURS RSVP LINK: BERLIN
Saturday, Nov. 11th — Paris, France
OFFICE HOURS RSVP LINK: PARIS
Wednesday, Nov. 29th — Helsinki, Finland
OFFICE HOURS RSVP LINK: HELSINKI
Thursday, November 30th — Stockholm, Sweden
OFFICE HOURS RSVP LINK: STOCKHOLM
PS — Playing in my headphones right now…
