Virtual Venue Flymachine Raises $21M: Capshaw, Silva, Diamond Among Investors

The startup promises fans “a front-row, completely-immersive seat to some of the world’s most recognized venues.”

It aims to separate itself from similar offerings by focussing on the digital social experience, offering “unprecedented levels of agency and social connectivity, as opposed to passively watching a broadcast.” 

Aside from the ability to virtually move through various spaces, fans can utilize proximity-based video chat to see and speak to each other, and experience chance encounters during an event, “similar to an in-venue experience,” according to a press release. 

To create this experience, Flymachine utilizes “cutting-edge, patent-pending video technology.” 

The $21 million financing round was led by Greycroft Partners and SignalFire, with additional participation from Primary Venture Partners, Contour Venture Partners, Red Sea Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank. 

Angel investors joining the round include music-industry luminaries Coran Capshaw, Bill Silva, Marty Diamond, and Larry Webman, Bay Area concert promoter Another Planet Entertainment, Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons, WIRED magazine co-founding editor John Battelle, and LionTree Partners. 

“With this new investment, Flymachine will continue to grow its diverse team, expand its network of iconic venue partners, and develop new features for its industry-leading digital events platform,” the press release continues.

 

The people behind Flymachine believe, that “live events are becoming just as digitally interconnected as other aspects of our lives, and virtual audiences are becoming an extension of in-person audiences.”

Flymachine co-founder and CEO Andrew Dreskin commented: “Virtual events have an opportunity to change the game for artists, promoters, and fans, but the technology that exists today is pretty underwhelming — videobox, paywall, and a bunch of scrolling nonsense; not exactly what one would call game-changing.

“At Flymachine, we’re creating something different: a digital venue of the future, an art medium, and a social meeting place. It offers a level of depth, agency and social interactivity that hadn’t before existed. It’s a pretty cool way to check out a show remotely.”

Artists using Flymachine are promised new levelss of creative control over their digital performances, including tools and third-party integrations that are popular with professional touring personnel, access to advanced broadcast features, pre- and post-show multimedia offerings, real-time data, and crowd visualizations.

The video below shows what this looks like:

 

According to Marty Diamond, managing executive at Wasserman Music, “Flymachine is live digital events on a completely different level. The social element is unparalleled, and the artist and fan engagement we’ve seen so far has been amazing. We’ve already heard great feedback from artists and their teams about the potential to connect more with their fans and bring immersive, new experiences to concerts.”

Flymachine is the brainchild of music industry veterans and digital visionaries Andrew Dreskin, who co-founded Ticketfly and TicketWeb; co-founder and chief experience officer Rick Farman, a culture sculptor at Superfly, and co-founder of Bonnaroo and Outside Lands; co-founder and chief technology officer Matthew Davis, the Grammy-nominated music technology trailblazer and founder of [namethemachine]. 

ATC Management is a fourth founding partner. The founding team has worked at the crossroads of technology and entertainment for over two decades. 

Flymachine as exclusive agreements in place with Bowery Ballroom in New York City, Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco, The Casbah in San Diego, The Crocodile in Seattle, Marathon Music Works in Nashville, Vogue Theatre in Vancouver, and Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles, among others.

Wayne Hu, managing director at SignalFire, commented, “The Flymachine team’s deep track record of architecting many of the world’s best live entertainment experiences including Bonnaroo and Outside Lands, to name a few, aligns perfectly with the massive opportunity to unlock the future of social streaming for live events. In just a short amount of time, the team has built strategic partnerships with many of the most well-known venues in North America, developed the most innovative platform in the market, and created a next-generation experience for fans and artists. This was an investment we absolutely had to make.”

Flymachine officially launched in spring 2021. Upcoming shows hosted on the platform include Aaron Frazer, K.Flay, The Black Angels, and Lion Babe. 

Once live touring returns fully, the company intends to tap into hybrid events that accompany the live experience with a virtual one for fans that can’t be on site in person.