Music Tech Deals -- Week 22 2021

DJ's collaborative social platform Turntable.fm has raised $7.5 million in venture capital funding, according to a Medium post by CEO Billy Chasen reported by TheVerge. The round was led by the Andreessen Horowitz firm known as a16z, alongside Seth Goldstein, who was a co-founder and an original investor in Turntable.fm in 2011. Originally shut down in 2013, Turntable.fm was revived by Chasen as a response to the pandemic.

Cincinnati-based start-up Tixxy is partnering with a range of companies such as SoundRink, 10th Street Entertainment, and AXS to launch in the US its app aimed at providing fans with live experiences. Tixxy Founder and CEO Eron Bucciarelli describes the app as “a privacy focused, non-intrusive way to keep track of events in your town.” Tixxy will compile live dates from partners and major ticketing companies like Ticketmaster and send users a quick text when a band they might listen to is coming to their town. Tixxy's partners will provide a value-added experience: Sound Rink lets artists create unique VIP experiences that can be purchased with a click; 10th Street Entertainment will promote its artists’ tours via Tixxy; and AXS is AEG-owned ticketing company.

Music-focused non-fungible token (NFT) platform OneOf, which is due to launch in July, has raised $63 million in a round led by environmental activist Bill Tai, Nima Capital’s Suna Said, Sangha Capital, tech investor Jack Herrick and the Tezos Foundation. OneOf CEO Lin Dai told Coin Desk the funding will be spent on expanding the team, building on top of the platform’s existing technology and supporting independent artists. He also said the funds will come in support of its mission to provide a more environmentally sustainable marketplace for artists and fans. OneOf’s platform, which is built on the Tezos blockchain, will launch with a series of NFTs which include music by the late Whitney Houston, Doja Cat, Quincy Jones, JacobCollier and G-Eazy, according to Coin Desk.

Qwest TV, the video streaming company co-founded by Quincy Jones, has secured its first major US cable partnership by joining Xfinity On Demand. Qwest TV's entire SVoD catalogue of over 1,300+ concerts, documentaries, and performances from around the world is now available to Comcast's Xfinity customers. “We are very proud to announce this partnership with Comcast,” said Jones. “Qwest TV’s roots are in Jazz and all of the music that was born from and inspired by it, and we are excited to share its enormous influence on all types of diverse music from around the world with the American audience.” The company disclosed that thanks to agreements Comcast, as well as with Samsung TV Plus, Vizio, and Rakuten TV, among others, Qwest TV can be found on 149M+ devices around the world. “Our ongoing expansion and growing subscriber base demonstrate the viability of, and need for, different music content," said Qwest TV Co-founder and CEO Reza Ackbaraly. 

The company created by the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery will be named Warner Bros. Discovery, reflecting its roots in the history of the film studio and the global reach of Discovery, according to the CEO of the new entity David Zaslav. The company has a new temporary logo and a new slogan – “The stuff that dreams are made of" – a reference to the line that appears at the end ofJohn Huston's 1941 movie 'The Maltese Falcon'. While presenting the new visual identity of the company, The New York Times reported that Zaslav said that it will take about a year before the merger gets cleared by competition authorities, and that in the meantime, the teams at the two companies will continue to work as competitors. 

AnyClip, a start-up which provides video analytics by using artificial intelligence and search tools, has raised $47 million, in a funding round led by JVP, with La Maison, Bank Mizrahi and internal investors. Headquartered in New York, AnyClip helps content providers improve their performances and their audience with better video analytics. “There is a revolution coming in the way enterprises use video to convey their message and their identity,” said Erel Margalit, JVP founder and Chairman, and AnyClip’s Board Chairman. “For the first time, AI meets video. Whether it’s how to create videos for consumers or training videos for the organisation, or learning how to manage conferences run by video on zoom which need intelligent management in the retrieving of content. This is a new era, and AnyClip is a vital tool for anyone embarking upon it.”

Warner Music Group (WMG) has signed a strategic global multi-year partnership with music technology company Songclip, which will give WMG access to Songclip's API, allowing the integration of licensed music to social media apps. Songclip's API allows users, when combined with apps, to search for and share music clips across everything from their social media feeds to their online dating profiles. The platform also provides data analytics on how consumers interact with music to the social platforms, mobile apps and virtual marketplaces that use its service. “Partnering with Songclip will allow WMG to dramatically expand its social licensing footprint, allowing users of new apps and platforms to express themselves more creatively and authentically through music," said Alex Kamins, SVP, New Business Ventures at WMG. In March, Songclip raised $11 million to help fund its expansion.