Marathon Artists LABs (MAL) - a division of Marathon Artists – will bring its first accelerator programme ‘Tools for Music Managers’ to a close this week, as it showcases the work of six start-ups looking to create innovative new products for artists and managers.
The ‘Tools for Music Managers’ programme is designed to unearth new companies offering tools and services aimed at helping managers and artists progress in the industry.
Now, the six handpicked startups from across Europe, Israel and the US will display their products on July 6th at an invite-only event at The Gallery, Tileyard Studios, London, from 6-8pm. The MAL showcase, in partnership with Audiotube, Sushi VP and Tileyard, culminates in a ‘Demo Day’ where the six accelerator start-ups will present a five-minute pitch about their business, followed by a short Q&A.
The successful start-ups include:
Stagelink - A fan-powered tour promoter that crowdsources live events, leveraging millions of online followers to create successful live shows and tours. Stagelink has launched in the UK, secured additional funding, won the Midem Lab competition and is now working with Syco Records.
Festyvent - Festyvent is a platform to enable promoters and touring artists to better engage and monetise their audiences before, during and after events. Festyvent has raised considerable awareness for their product in the festival space and looks forward to working with some of the larger festivals in 2017. It has also just started to work with Wolf Alice.
Floviral - Floviral owns over 50 million followers across social media channels, such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Vine in a multitude of themes. These accounts have up to 1 million followers in total, which provides the ability to create genuine conversations with all followers, allowing them to push products, apps, and causes. Floviral has secured a contract with Sony Pictures in LA.
Magnetic.tv - Magnetic.tv is a boutique video network specialising in music, film and photography. It has secured contracts with Music Sales Group and their first new brand launch contract with TOAD (The Oxford Artisan Distillery).
Chainvine - Chainvine will give you secure identity assertion, enabling control of assets, such as intellectual property. Chainvine is working with digital distributor Audiotube. It has integrated an audio delivery system, which allows Audiotube to service both audio and video to DSPs with a blockchain ID.
Funtoad - Funtoad provides new artistic dimensions for artists by harnessing the power of mobile devices in live events. Funtoad’s stage controller for mobile devices lets artists create audio and visual effects on audience phones. It recently developed audience experiences for a Bloom Twins concert in Kiev and has gigs coming up in Valencia, Ibiza and the Dead Sea this summer. The Israeli team has closed its first seed-funding round.
“In the last six months our start-ups have started pilots, won awards and won new clients in music and entertainment,” said Jimmy Mikaoui, managing director, Marathon Artists. “It’s been a fantastic journey together and we look forward to celebrating their achievements with you at our first demo day”
Paul-René Albertini, chairman, Sushi Venture Partners, commented: "At Sushi Venture Partners we regularly review and test tech products that support content creators and media businesses to expose and monetise better their work or even create new experiences.
“The Marathon Artists LABs programme was designed in that context to allow us to work closely with a great selection of start-up teams and artists. Our insights and ability to connect them to decision makers was key to making it possible to foster new partnerships between artists, music managers and the start-ups - which they will be presenting on our Demo Day.”
Scott de Mercado, CEO, Audiotube, added: "The start-ups in Marathon Artists LABs are playing a key role in the new music landscape - a rapidly evolving artist centric music business. The programme is an optimal R&D platform, enabling my company, Audiotube, to find emerging tech and services for artists. We work closely with our partners Marathon Artist LABs to accelerate these young companies while integrating their core propositions and products into Audiotube's distribution pipeline”
Marathon Artist LABs is also planning to run a second programme centred on the theme ‘music tech/ad tech’. This will focus on music tech relevant to advertising and brands. Artists’ interests will be a key area of interest, with MAL looking at engagement, monetisation and exposure from the perspective of the artist.
Startups that are interested in applying for the second programme can email the programme director at martin@sushivp.com.
For further info on Marathon Artists LABs please visit http://www.marathonartists.com/labs/.
Registration for the event is free. Sign up here.
