Techstars Bring AI Wave to Music Development, Sales

“Our job is not today–our job is five to seven years in the future,” says Bob Moczydlowsky, managing director of Techstars Music. “We’re looking for startups that can be billion-dollar companies.”

The AI wave continues to progress across all industries, including the creative and business sides of music. AI is now writing songs that are, to say the least, interesting. Perhaps not on your hit parade just yet, but it’s possible. Since it takes money to get such ideas off the ground, that’s where Techstars Music Accelerator comes in.

Techstars is a global network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Since being launched in 2017, Techstars Music Accelerator has gathered the brightest designers, developers and thinkers in the computer/music era and put them in front of music investors. From gathering in a Phoenix conference room in 2014, to weekend-long sessions brainstorming over apps, musicians are coming away with investments in those ideas. Now in their third year, Techstars announces their latest class.

The 2019 classes will run from February 4th through May 2nd, when the Techstars will announce 9 startups which will present their ideas to over 300 investors, music execs and tech/entertainment industry leaders.

Techstars Music Accelerator has released a list of 21 start-ups it has helped get off the ground from across the music spectrum over the last 3 years, including AI-driven vocals and songwriting to ticket sales improvements. Take a look at a few that were in an article in fastcompany.com.

The Dutch progressive rock band Lesoir is benefiting from a Techstars-funded start-up called The Music Fund, which provides income upfront.

The Music Fund (San Francisco): a platform that uses a data-driven, smart-pricing algorithm to offer up-front cash for a portion of any artist’s royalty income from streaming. Artists from around the world, like the Dutch progressive rock band Lesoir, pictured, have benefited from the service.

SuperRes (Brisbane, Australia): uses artificial intelligence to separate, classify, and up-res audio for the purpose of audio search, discovery, recommendation, personalization and quality enhancement.

Inklocker (Los Angeles): a decentralized global network of on-demand manufacturers.

Replica (Brisbane, Australia): uses artificial intelligence to create the next generation of games, films, music, and other media with access to millions of “Replica” voice actors on demand

Marble AR (Los Angeles): an augmented-reality platform that creates live music experiences with visuals, lights, sounds, physical object interactions, and audience participation

“We’re hoping to be a window to where culture is headed,” says Bob Moczydlowsky, managing director of Techstars Music and former head of music at Twitter.

The music industry is in fact partially funding Techstars Music. They hope to become the mentors of a start-up while making their entry into this industry easier.

Groups like Warner Music Group, Silva Artist Management and even Peleton have supported Techstars. Though considered a fitness company, Peleton fits the forward thinking of Techstars Music Accelerator as they try to uncover new ways to market music and music-minded startups.

“Big subscription-based businesses get to a point where they get so many subscribers that they start to expand horizontally and move out into other kinds of content–and Peloton is in an interesting spot,” Moczydlowsky says. “All of their content includes music. Their ability to break songs is emerging. Their ability to influence genres and the way people consume when they move physically is growing.”

read more at Fast Company