500 Startups is one of the most famous startup accelerators, based in San Francisco and now into its 25th program. This time round, there are two music/tech startups in the mix: BeatDapp and Renaissance.
BeatDapp is one of the new clutch of startups (see also: Midemlab-winner Legitary) trying to help labels keep better track of their streaming royalties. “Instead of arguing with various companies in the value chain – Increase revenue by authenticating each play globally for your entire catalog, for every digital service provider,” is the pitch to labels on its website. “Music labels report up to a 21% discrepancy between play counts reported and payouts received.”
Renaissance’s pitch is that it is “the only music app that brings you closer to artists”. How? By rewarding people with a virtual ‘stars’ currency for streaming music from YouTube and Spotify – like loyalty points – which can then be redeemed for rewards from artists. Fan leaderboards and the ability to add friends. Music Ally actually wrote about Renaissance in April: its founder is Ruthia He, a former product designer on Facebook’s Portal smart-display.
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Tools: Kaiber
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