AI-powered music collaboration platform boombox.io has closed a seed funding round, securing $7 million in investments from Forerunner, super{set} startup studio and Ulu Ventures.
According to Boombox, using its so-called ‘Boombot’ AI tool, it leverages Generative AI to “enrich and extend a musician’s creative process”.
The San Francisco-based platform claims that this tool “generates new ideas and fleshes out partial ones to make music creation more dynamic, faster and smarter”.
The startup adds that “boombot helps users spitball lyrics and song titles, suggests chord progressions, and turns them into MIDI files creators can pull directly into their digital audio workstation”.
In addition to using the new funds to enhance Boombot, boombox.io will also use the fresh funds to build out its team, speed up product development, establish new partnerships.
boombox.io was launched in November 2022, allowing musicians to store, version, and track their music files, gather time-stamped feedback on audio files, communicate with iOS/Android apps, manage songwriting and recording splits, and create contracts for song ownership.
“We aspired to build a platform that gives music makers an all-in-one platform to collaborate like GitHub, connect like LinkedIn, and earn revenue from music.”
Tom Chavez, Boombox.io
Following its seed funding round, boombox.io has announced plans to roll out a desktop app in the coming months.
This desktop app will offer simplified file backup, automation of submissions to performing rights organizations (PROs), and video features to facilitate live sessions with collaborators.
Co-founder and CEO Tom Chavez, said: “I felt the creator economy was long on hype and short on tools for creators. We aspired to build a platform that gives music makers an all-in-one platform to collaborate like GitHub, connect like LinkedIn, and earn revenue from music.”
“There are a lot of tools that solve little pain points in the creative process, but ours is, to our knowledge, the first end-to-end solution to enable musical creators to collaborate, connect, and earn revenue from their art,” Chavez continued.
“boombox.io is grounded in the idea that we can reimagine the best of workplace productivity software specifically for music producers.”
Brian O’Malley, Forerunner
Brian O’Malley, Managing Partner at Forerunner, added: “boombox.io is grounded in the idea that we can reimagine the best of workplace productivity software specifically for music producers, so they can better harness their creativity and take ownership of their work — rather than wrestle with disparate apps and storage systems that weren’t built for their needs.”
O’Malley added: “It’s helmed by tech industry leaders with a track record of building great businesses and musicians with a deep appreciation for the production process, who together saw an opportunity in the gap between the tools they use daily for work and those used to collaborate on their craft. It’s easy to see how boombox.io will immediately land with users, and then continue to grow with them over time.”
Forerunner, which led the seed round, also led the $1.5 million seed funding for Los Angeles-based ticketed livestreaming startup Moment House in 2020.
Lucas Banker, Head of Partnerships at boombox.io and a long-time music producer who has worked with notable artists such as Selena Gomez and Sting, shared his enthusiasm about the partnership, saying, “boombox.io has blown me away with its features and integrations.”
“This is what so many of us have been waiting for: a system for musicians that helps us create beautiful art and get it out in the world. It’s like Dropbox on steroids but with so much more, built by people who know how music is made.”
boombox.io’s investment round came amid increasing interest in both the music-making space and the use of AI in music creation.
On Tuesday, Universal Music Group (UMG) entered into “a first-of-its-kind strategic relationship” with generative AI sound wellness startup Endel to create what they call “AI-powered, artist-driven functional music”.
Also this week, Singapore-based BandLab Technologies, the parent company of social music creation platform BandLab, secured an additional USD $25 million in its Series B1 financing round, valuing the company at $425 million.
BandLab’s flagship namesake platform offers a range of features such as the cross-platform digital audio workstation Studio, royalty-free sample and loops service Sounds, and the AI music generator tool SongStarter.Music Business Worldwide
