Swedish music tech company Starmony has raised US $3.5 million from Brightly Ventures, Bonnier Ventures and Acecap along with a group of angel investors from the music industry, as well as existing investors Luminar Ventures, Max Ventures and Almi Invest.
Among the new angel investors include music business veterans Jonas Siljemark (ex Warner Music) and Ola Håkansson (TEN Music Group).
Starmony promises to let users create hit songs using just their voice.
According to an explainer video (see below), users record themselves singing or rapping and then, using AI, the app will analyze the vocal sound and provide “multiple full professional music productions” to those vocals “in just a minute”.
The company says that it has built a network of professional producers to create those productions.
Once artists have recorded their vocals and chosen their production style, they can edit the different sections of the song (intro, verse, chorus etc.) and add effects.
The final track can then be distributed to music streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify from within the app.
Starmony CEO and co-founder Jan Nordlund claims that the app “enables anyone with talent, and a smartphone to create and release a global hit within minutes”.
The company explains that royalties generated by streams are shared with both the music producers behind the productions and the artists who record their vocals.
Starmony’s IOS app, currently released with a waiting list, will now see its beta user testing extended, followed by a mass-market release early next year.
“The Starmony app enables anyone with talent, and a smartphone to create and release a global hit within minutes, leveraging professional top music producers work combined with leading audio technology and the latest AI technology.”
Jan Nordlund, Starmony
Jan Nordlund, CEO and co-founder of Starmony, said: “The Starmony app enables anyone with talent, and a smartphone to create and release a global hit within minutes, leveraging professional top music producers work combined with leading audio technology and the latest AI technology.
“In essence, your mobile becomes a full music studio, with professional music producers, and your own record label.”
Daniel Zangger, COO and Co-founder, added: “We have a made a few test releases of full songs on Spotify and Apple music made by early beta testers around the world in different genres, such as rap, dance, pop and reggaeton with amazing results in the Starmony Allstar playlist on Spotify you can judge for yourself.”
“Starmony can transform music making and let practically anyone produce great songs.”
Jonas Siljemark
Jonas Siljemark said: “I have worked in the music industry for over 30 years, and know how hard it is to actually create great music and then get access to those closed networks of music executives and producers.
“Hence most artists and great music makers never get the chance to show their talent to the world. Starmony can transform music making and let practically anyone produce great songs.”
“We are impressed by the team with their deep insights and height of innovation in music creation and tech.”
Katja Bergman, Brightly Ventures
Katja Bergman, General Partner, Brightly Ventures, said: “We are impressed by the team with their deep insights and height of innovation in music creation and tech.
“As social video creation and video content multiply each year, so does the demand for original music; we are excited by the creative format that Starmony enables; A talented singer-songwriter can produce original music as easily as short videos on a social video app” “Technology that serves creativity in such an inspiring way; Perhaps one should expect nothing less from the country that created both Abba and Spotify!”Music Business Worldwide