Features
Techstars Music Accelerator 2018 Presents 10 Visions of the Future
– Techstars
Where is the world of recorded music headed? Can we expect AI robots playing “Stairway to Heaven” at the 2050 equivalent of the Star Wars cantina? Or will we frolic with our idols in some future Rockworld, where Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin cyborgs satisfy a boomer’s dying fantasies?
The 10 finalists at this year’s second Techstars Music Accelerator “2018 Demo Day” presentations in Los Angeles were sponsored by music business investors like Sony Music, WMG, Concord Music, Bill Silva Entertainment, Silva Artist Management, Q Prime, Royalty Exchange, Harmonix, RecoChoku, who are all committed to improving the industry’s development – for both consumers and investors alike.
The music accelerator, which opened for business just last year, has sunk more than $2.5 million into 21 music-tech initiatives, including the new entries – which come from all over the world – Tokyo (Edison.ai), Berlin (Endel), Madrid (Hellotickets) and Paris (Soundcharts).
Each company goes through an accelerated three-month incubation program that exposes them to professional mentors (and possible financiers) within the music business in their particular areas of development.
On a recent early-May Thursday afternoon at NeueHouse on Sunset Boulevard in front of a young, smart crowd, each of the 10 groups offered a short, 10-minute pitch on their companies following a welcome from Techstars Music Managing Director Bob Moczydlowsky (formerly of Twitter, Topspin Media and Yahoo! Music). Think “Shark Tank” meets “Silicon Valley.”
Three of the companies deal with concert ticketing issues: the blockchain-oriented Hellotickets, the artist-directed presale software Seated and the biometric face-scan technology of Blink Identity; along with start-ups offering advanced metrics: the real-time analytics of Soundcharts and the image recognition marketing research of Edison.ai; an iPod-like streaming device (Mighty), a Smartphone jukebox game for bars (Spark.DJ), social media communities (the heavy metal-oriented Gimme Media), and even artificial intelligence to help you write hip-hop lyrics with the help of superstar MCs (SecondBrain, Inc.). Finally, there’s software designed to wrap you in a personalized adaptive environment – complete with appropriate soundtrack and visuals — based on your personal needs, time of day and activity (Endel).
As Pollstar’s recent story on how cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are affecting the ticketing business noted, Hellotickets, recently launched in Latin America by Spanish ticketing vet Jorge Diaz Largo, offers a smart ticket that registers every transaction, and reflects both seller and artist’s subsequent shares into its design. LCD Soundsytem’s James Murphy and Nancy Whang appeared in a short film, touting their own investment in (and use of) the firm.
Blink Identity, on the other hand, incorporates facial recognition technology originally developed for the military to scan up to 60 people per minute, say, queuing up for a concert, with complete data for each one. Created by founders Mary Haskett and Dr. Alex Kilpatrick, it offers undeniable security benefits at the same time as it augers Big Brother-type paranoia. They used the occasion to announce a deal with Live Nation for their technology.
The third ticketing initiative was Seated, a piece of embedded software for artists’ websites and social media that allows control over the entire sales process, from when concert dates are announced through onsale. Using the tag-line, “rock stars are the best marketers in the world,” founders David McKay, who launched, then sold, ticketing site Applause, and John Griffin outlined a pipeline from concert announcement to buy to delivery that makes a great deal of sense, both pragmatic and financial.
Former UMG France executive David Weiszfeld came up with Soundcharts to help him manage his own artist Petit Biscuit. He offered a convincing argument of his database’s ability to measure streaming, sales and social media activity in a way that enables record companies and management to make timely, efficient decisions on how and where to allocate marketing funds. The ability to offer “real-time marketing intelligence,” has led Weiszfeld to attract $50,000 in monthly subscription fees and raise $3.1 million in development funds.
Music executives are always looking to outsmart the competition; this offers them the latest edge. Coming by way of Tokyo, TT Chu’s Edison.ai is so ingenious, it’s a wonder no one thought of it sooner. By scanning social media photographs, Chu can tell marketers exactly what brand of shirt, pants, shoes, sneakers or even food you’re eating, the places you’ve visited, the music and films you consume, all with the ability to predict future needs and desires. Take that, Cambridge Analytics.
The technology could be every market research firms’ dream come true. 5B Artist + Media founder/CEO Cory Brennan (Slipknot) and Concord Music Group touted their investments in the targeted niche social media play Gimme Media, which launched with a heavy metal radio station, built-in community and on-line store, according to one of its founders, Tyler Lenane.
Spark.DJ is an interactive smart phone game that allows you to dictate what comes next over the sound system at your local bar, tap room or casino, building up points along the way that can be exchanged for, say, a free beer. Founders James Jones and John Boss promised Spark.DJ as the perfect way for establishments to connect with and collect data on its customers, display promotions and effortlessly crowd-source the music on their PA.
Mighty is a programmable, portable iPod-like device that lets you separate the sound streams from the rest of your mobile activity. The company officially launched in July with a Spotify partnership, which allows them to program all that site’s vast archives and playlists on the device, which can wirelessly connect to other sources via Bluetooth. Founder Anthony Mendelson, a former Google employee, has already signed up 33,000 users in 65 countries, with a software app (Powered by Mighty) on tap.
Credit for the most far-out start-up of the night has to go to Steven Wilkerson’s SecondBrain, Inc., which is like spellcheck on steroids, offering artificial intelligence writing, grammar and style tools to help you compose both personal and professional missives. The founder’s goal is to create a seamless human and machine interaction which, given what’s going on in this season of “Westworld,” may be too little, too late. With the first manifestation of his company Rapgod.ai, the application allows you to write rap lyrics using any number of “second brain” contributors, from Tupac to Snoop Dogg. It will even allow you to write an email asking for a raise from your boss in the style of Kanye West. Which might just get you fired.
Last, but certainly most intriguing, was German co-founder Oleg Stavitsky’s Endel, a sort of acoustic/visual environment personalized for the user by algorithms based on various inputs, including time of day, place, activity, heartbeat rate, walking cadence, weather and temperature, etc, for the specific activity. It’s no wonder the project attracted the support of Brad Barrish, Sonos director of customer care experience, who introduced the presentation. The core product is essentially a mobile app, but there are also integrations with other connective devices for Sonos, naturally. They are currently working on an automobile version that incorporates traffic patterns into its mix. Call it Waze and Means.
From smart tickets to customized sonic atmospheres, this year’s Techstars Music Accelerator demos had a little something for everyone. Each company will receive a $120,000 investment, professional mentorship, support for life and the intensive three-month launch program in exchange for 6 percent. The initial 11 companies from last year’s inaugural event practically doubled their initial funding to more than $20 million.