Sir Paul McCartney is among a group of investors in an PS7.2 million financing round for the music startup Audoo.
The former Beatle joins current shareholders Edinv and Tileyard London, together with Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus, to finance the business.
Audoo has collected PS14 million of pre-Series B funding , and according to its chief executive , the company is targeting the European as well as North American markets “as they are generally the biggest music markets in the world.”
The company was founded by Ryan Edwards in 2018, Audoo is an innovative music technology company that aims to change the payment system for royalty for musicians with it’s Audio Meter device, which is a device that monitors the music that is played in public spaces. This device is able to be connected to the mains socket, features it own set of microphones, and utilizes mobile networks to connect with servers. According to Edwards the device is able to recognize 99 percent of the time. recognition rate. Edwards compared the technology like a smartmeter with locations ranging from bars to shopping centres that can “fit and forget” the device.
Edwards who was a musician of Stourbridge, West Midlands, stated that he’d seen his music played in cafes, football stadiums and bars, but was shocked to find out that he didn’t receive royalties for the music. At present, Performing Right Organisations and Collective Management Organisations take individuals to the venues to hear samples of the music and calculate payments for musicians and composers.
Edwards stated Edwards said that “hundreds of millions are paid out on estimations”, which tend to favor the most popular artists and reduce the revenue of lesser artists. “Certain genres just don’t get representation,” Edwards stated. He was hoping this would help someone trying to earn an income by performing.
Artists are convinced that they collectively miss the sum of $2.7 billion of royalties. Edwards believes Audoo can help to address this issue.
In his staff are a range of industry giants such as Adam Parness, Spotify’s former director of global music publishing and Chris Herbert, the talent manager for The Spice Girls, among others.
Audoo’s boss was eloquent in his praise of McCartney’s investment firm, MPL Communications, saying it was “wonderful” to have the backing of a staff that knew about publishing.
