Techstar’s Bob ‘Moz’ Moczydlowsky on Today’s Music Start-Ups And The Future of Live (Q&A)

(Photo: Kiana Nicio) –
Incubation Period: Techstar Music’s L.A. offices where start-ups are each granted $120K to perfect and grow their music-related companies.

Bob “Moz” Moczydlowsky is the managing director of Techstars Music, an accelerator dedicated to all manner of innovation in the music and live entertainment space. Every year he invests $1.2 million into 10 of the best music-related startups from around the world. We caught up with the former head of music at Twitter and SVP of product and marketing at Topspin Media, to get his take on this “Black Swan” year and what lies ahead just as the public deadline hit for applications to Techstars Music 2021.

Pollstar: So today’s actually your deadline for 2021 submissions to be part of Techstar’s music accelerator program, right?
Bob “Moz” Moczydlowsky: Yes, our public applications officially closed today. There’s a bunch of ways to jump around that, so we’ll still be looking at companies through the second week of December. But yes, the public deadline is the reason I’m still in the office this late on a Friday night. I’ve got 35 new company submissions to look at before I go home. I’ve got work to do!

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Bob “Moz” Moczydlowsky

What trends are you seeing in those applications sitting in front of you?
We’re seeing lots and lots of live streaming, and definitely more virtual experiences and immersive entertainment which are avatar-based or in a virtual space – lots of alternatives to physical events. These companies existed before and we’ve been investing here for three years already, but the category is accelerating because our entertainment habits are being ripped up by the pandemic. People are home and they are more willing to experiment. This is a moment in time where new habits are going to be formed and those habits are going to then turn into an advantage and some growth momentum for a bunch of new startups.

What about livestreaming?
We’ve tracked 37 different companies doing ticketed livestreams for artists – and I don’t think this is a particularly interesting category to invest in. I’m bearish on these companies because delivering a live stream is a commodity. It should either be done for reach and marketing on a big platform, or for revenue as a very high-level, high-quality pay-perview style experience. I think those products will stick and be good business for top artists. Consumers will be willing to have the payper- view experience if it has interactive elements and high production, but I don’t think consumers want to pay 15 bucks to watch artists in their homes or practice spaces. To me, those are a stopgap rather than a product. Way more interesting are the virtual spaces where we as fans can spend part of our time as alter egos or avatar-based expressions of ourselves – both as fans of artists at an event but also just to hang out and goof around with friends. Those habits are being accelerated now. It will still take four or five years to develop, but it’s starting to be clear it will happen now.

You mentioned a lot of AI music companies applying to Techstars – are there examples of some of the ones you’ve funded in the past that are doing well?
We funded Popgun in 2017. They built a mobile app called Splash and it’s doing fine. But then they made a Roblox-based version of Splash, and it exploded. They have more than 20 million kids playing their game, which is really just hanging out in Roblox and DJing with the Popgun AI-generated song packs. Now, they’re going to start interacting with artists in those spaces. They’re [turning] the Splash stages into little clubs. Kids who are users of Roblox can go in and perform with their friends. It’s fascinating to watch! For three years, the Popgun guys were building an AI engine to make music. And it turns out that the objective of the kid is not to make songs, it’s to perform. The kids want to put on a show and  be with their friends and grow their audience. Making some music is a prerequisite to that; you need songs and you need the ability to control the music and manipulate it to perform. But the songs are the beginning of the process, not the end goal. So Popgun built an environment inside of Roblox where kids can play with the music and make themselves artists without any rules. And now 20 million kids are doing just that. It’s really fascinating to watch.

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Spalsh, a game by Popgun, attracted more than 20 mil. since May, was part of the Techstars.

And that scaled this year?
They launched it in May! So really fast growth.

That’s really impressive. We’ve also seen a lot of other gaming-style music experiences, like with Fortnite and extended reality (XR). How have you been involved?
We had a company in this year’s program called Tribe XR. They make creative skills training in VR, starting with learning how to DJ and perform. They built a Pioneer CDJ within VR, and you can perform and learn how to DJ with their classes and connections to other platforms for streaming. They doubled their monthly revenues during the pandemic so far, and once Oculus released their new headset a month ago, their revenues bumped up again, to nearly $50K a month. Again, people really do want to perform. And perhaps VR is finally enjoying a bit of broader consumer adaption because people are home and have more time and are more willing to experiment. Facebook spending hundreds of millions of dollars to drive Oculus into Q4 is certainly helping, too. I’ve been kind of bearish on VR to date, but it just might be the moment where people are willing to experiment and fall in love with it.

On the content side, artists are approaching livestreaming in new and different ways. Billie Eilish’s livestream had incredible XR production. And you’re seeing livestream user experiences enhanced where you can communicate with each other or the artist, the sound is better, the look is better.
Agreed! Another Techstars Music company from our 2020 class is Strangeloop Studios, a studio for virtual artists in collaboration with musicians. Every Sunday night they premiere new artists and new music in a Twitch live stream. The first two artists are called Anti-Fragile and Xen, and both “perform” inside worlds created by game engines, with music from known, established artists. The production value of live shows from virtual – and real – artists are about to become truly mind-blowing thanks to Unreal Engine and Unity. It’s a super fun company to work on, and one we’ve capitalized with co-investment from large music companies. Everyone realizes how powerful the tools are becoming, which drives creativity; and I think smart music people also realize how much more efficiently you can monetize a virtual artist, too. I expect there to be a lot of successful companies in this space, and we’ll make more investments here going forward.

Last year’s Techstars Music seemed to touch the live business, too. You included Fanaply, which creates digital collectibles for the music, sports, and entertainment industries – are they on hold because of the pandemic?
Not at all! Obviously all of their work providing digital currency inside of Coachella is on hold, but otherwise they are crazy busy! Fanaply makes and manages digital collectibles. They  just did something like 60,000 Niall Horan digital collectibles as a souvenir from his Albert Hall live streams from a week ago. They also did very limited edition digital collectibles for the first fans to see the new Lil Nas X video premiere. I love this space – rewarding kids who were the first one to watch a video on YouTube (which is a thing you can see kids competing with each other to record and prove). Then these collectibles can start to impart access to other products, discounts, rewards, etc. And when live comes back, there are so many more applications.

(Matthew Fang) –
The Next Dimension: Strangeloop co-founders Ian Simon and David Wexler

How about Splashmob, which is building tools to empower venues, artists, teams, and performers to interact with and engage audiences in real-time and during live events, they’re probably on hold right now?
Startups don’t go on hold – they either adapt or they die! Splashmob makes a tool for creating custom second-screen experiences. They sell attention, allowing an event organizer to take over the phones of their attendees, and use those phones in the show. This works online, too … place a Splashmob QR code into your livestream and interact with fans with polls, product offers, social actions, etc. Imagine you’re watching a YouTube video or a TV show, the show puts a QR code up, you hit it with your phone and now you have a synchronized second-screen experience to engage you more deeply, preventing you from getting distracted or bouncing to another piece of content. It’s going to be awesome for arenas and live sports, for sure, but the tech can evolve just fine with online events.

There was something recently about a new ticketing function from Ticketmaster that would be able to communicate if you’ve been vaccinated or tested, are you seeing things like that for crowds to gather safely with technology?
In 2018, we invested in Blink Identity, alongside Live Nation. They make high-speed, consumer-friendly facial recognition tech for access control. Think of it like the door from Star Trek – you walk up and it opens if it is supposed to open. Since the pandemic started, they have been doing contact-less entry with selfie-enrollment for facial ticketing at big youth sports complexes, and everyone loves it, including the fans. That tech is totally ready for a concert venue or an office space. One of their customers is a sports complex that does tens of thousands of visitors in a weekend for AAU basketball, youth volleyball and competitive sports. And there have been no visitor issues and actually, a rise in revenue from reduced ticket fraud.

And now Blink Identity is ready for scaling?
Exactly right. From a Pollstar perspective, Blink Identity is the one startup in our portfolio where I think readers should think, “Oh, this solution is in-market and working, helping people through the chaos of right now. How do I get in and out? How am I safe? How is the contact tracing list being created? How can my visit be personalized? How do you personalize a physical experience?” These are the problems we need to be working on over the next six to nine months. Live events should come back with a better customer experience, not just safety protocols, if we want the business to be as lucrative as before.

At the same time, your portfolio has artists that are virtual. They can go anywhere in a pandemic.
Strangeloop and Popgun are definitely pointing to a different future where fans are inside virtual spaces in ways which might compete with live events. So yes, we’re investing in both sides here. But then again… Strangeloop’s founders are highly-sought-after designers of tour visuals. They absolutely want to bring their virtual artists into real world venues using 3D LED and other immersive tech. Remember the Flying Lotus 3D show at The Hollywood Bowl? That was Strangeloop. So was the imagery for The Weeknd’s TikTok show with Wave. So these guys are no strangers to selling tickets or working with top artists. But now they’re building their own artists. Imagine if these artists build a following, they are absolutely going to tour them in physical venues. So you’re going to see the virtual artist come to the physical space where you’re going to have a totally immersive experience at The Hollywood Bowl or in The Sphere in Las Vegas, or at a theatre. And also on your couch.

We’ve seen a lot of innovation this year accelerated because of the pandemic.

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