The latest music messaging app hoping to take the app stores by storm is MSTY, a British startup whose app has launched for iPhone and Android smartphones today.
Competing with apps like Music Messenger, Rithm and Ditty, MSTY gets people to pick a song from its curated catalogue of clips; choose a background image or use their own photos; and then tap in a message before sending the results to a friend.
Like Rithm, MSTY has signed licensing deals with major labels and publishers, ingesting music and creating clips in-house rather than relying on iTunes previews or tracks scraped from YouTube or SoundCloud.
As far as we can tell, it’s also the first music app to integrate fully with the new Apple Music streaming service. At the end of every MSTY message, the recipient is provided with a link to Apple Music, where they can listen to the full track, or buy it from the iTunes Store.
The company was founded by entrepreneur Grant Bovey. “We get a kicker from Apple for any customer that we deliver to them that then goes on to subscribe to Apple Music. We also get a fee if somebody goes on to iTunes and buys a track,” he told Music Ally.
“Clearly there’s potential for MSTY to also do sponsorship deals: Mother’s Day, Father’s Day etc. But we aren’t worrying too much about monetising it in the short term. Our game plan is to get it out there and acquire as many active users as we can over the next six, nine, 12 months.”
Bovey said MSTY has enough funding to last it beyond launch, but will be seeking more investment in the Autumn if the app gets traction. Music Messenger is ahead of it on that front, with the Israeli company having raised $30m earlier this year.
Music Ally subscribers can read our full profile of MSTY, including more from Bovey, and our thoughts on the challenges the company faces – including the likelihood of competition from much bigger messaging apps like Snapchat, as well as better messaging features from streaming services like Spotify.
If you’re not a subscriber, sign up for a free trial to our research service.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…