Updated 2025-06-06T12:30:37Z
- Audio startups are changing how we listen to and discover music.
- A new crop of companies has emerged to help artists and other audio creators build businesses.
- We spoke with six audio-startup founders who shared the pitch decks they used to raise funds.
Innovation in music tech is on the rise.
Startups are building new ways for artists and creators to make and distribute songs and other audio.
Some companies, including social-entertainment apps like TikTok and YouTube, are making it easier for artists to get discovered. Platforms like Roblox and Discord have added new formats for artists to reach fans. And generative AI tools like Suno have created a tidal wave of new music while raising new questions about artist compensation in the age of AI.
One area of focus among audio startups is finding ways to help artists interact with their most loyal listeners, sometimes called superfans.
Sesh built a platform that lets users add "fan cards" of their favorite artists to their smartphone wallets, for example. Hangout created a group-listening platform that enables music fans to stream songs together.
"Even with a hundred superfans, you're going to be able to make a living instead of needing to do extra jobs for you to be able to pay for your instruments or your music career," Sesh's CEO, Iñigo-Hubertus Bunzl Pelayo, told Business Insider.
Other upstarts are focused on building internal tools for artists and their teams. Offtop built a Dropbox-style platform to help music collaborators share files, for instance. And RealCount offers data analytics for artists on their ticket sales.
Read BI's list of 14 promising music startups
Investors have poured millions of dollars into audio startups over the last few years. The category has drawn funding from institutional firms like SoftBank Ventures Korea and record labels like Sony Music.
BI spoke with six audio-startup founders who've raised money in the past few years about their fundraising process. They each shared the pitch decks they used to win over investors.
Read the pitch decks that helped 6 audio startups raise millions of dollars:
Note: Pitch decks are sorted by investment stage and size of round.
Series A
Seed
- Hangout, a social-listening platform: $8.2 million (26 pages)
- Sesh, a fan-engagement platform: $5 million (13 pages)
- Chartmetric, a music data startup: $2 million (46 pages)
- Supercast, a podcast subscriptions platform: $2 million (20 pages)
Other
Geoff Weiss, JP Mangalindan, Nhari Djan, and Michael Espinosa previously contributed reporting.
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