anotherblock, a Swedish web3 platform that lets fans invest in music by buying NFTs, has raised another €4 million (USD $4.3 million) in a recent investment round.
The round was led by Stride.VC, a UK-based venture capital firm known for backing successful early-stage businesses such as Deliveroo, Zoopla, and Daily Motion, as well as Axwell of Swedish House Mafia.
Axwell became the second member of Swedish House Mafia to support anotherblock after Steve Angello.
The latest round of funding came nearly a year after anotherblock raised $2.5 million from Inventure, a Nordic venture capital firm, Centrifuge.io founder Maex Ament, Dune.xyz’s Fredrik Haga and Blockchain research and investment company StableNode.
In January 2022, the company raised $1.2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by J12.
anotherblock says it will use the fresh funds to scale up its operations globally and expand its offering to a broader range of artists, producers, and record companies.
Founded in August 2022, anotherblock runs a blockchain-based marketplace.
“anotherblock are reinventing the user experience of music ownership. They have a very clear belief – that anyone should be able to own a share of their favorite songs and earn royalties alongside their favorite artists.”
Gabbi Cahane, Stride.VC
The startup says it is “committed to promoting the democratization of music rights” and has given fans access to streaming rights in global hit songs from artists like The Weeknd, Rihanna, Martin Garrix, Alan Walker, Offset, and R3HAB.
“I have followed anotherblock since the beginning, and it is clear that their work aligns with their vision. Enabling greater rights flexibility is the future of the music industry. It creates a whole new freedom for creators to share the financial incentives with fans, which are the most important thing we have,” said Axwell.
Gabbi Cahane, partner at Stride.VC, highlighted anotherblock’s potential to transform the music economy.
“anotherblock are reinventing the user experience of music ownership. They have a very clear belief – that anyone should be able to own a share of their favorite songs and earn royalties alongside their favorite artists,” Cahane said.
Cahane added: “This proposition could be a seismic shift for an industry that has traditionally been extremely protective over the ownership of IP. Their artist and fan-centered approach utilizes the core technologies and values of Web3 to enable the ownership of a song to be atomized; its ownership to be decentralized; and the balance of power and value capture in the industry to be democratised. They have the potential to build the platform that opens up liquidity, transparency and equity in the music economy and go on to power the market for music rights globally.”
Looking ahead, anotherblock plans to focus on scalability and transition to a more open marketplace. The company aims to create a model that allows a wider range of emerging artists and the rapidly growing independent music scene to leverage the platform for funding their careers and engaging with their communities.
“Our primary focus in the first year was to educate and prove our product, but going forward, it’s about reaching an even wider audience, particularly outside of the crypto space, and enabling even more creators to get involved,” said Michel D. Traore, CEO and co-founder of anotherblock.
“The blockchain ecosystem currently boasts more active users and greater opportunities to engage them than ever before, opening up endless possibilities for the combination of music rights and technology. Having world-class backers on board for this journey is extremely valuable.”
Music Business Worldwide