The winners of the second annual Music Ally SI:X startups contest have been announced this morning.
12on12, Flame2Fame, Masterchannel, Music Tomorrow, StanPass and Tickets For Good were the startups picked by our panel of judges, after narrowing down the 36 finalists.
The six winners will now present at our Music Ally Connect conference in January 2024, and will receive a mentoring programme from SI:X’s supporting sponsors and Music Ally.
We launched SI:X in 2022 as a global showcase, contest and mentorship programme for early-stage music startups. Daaci, Hawkr, Volta XR, Biiah, Curve Royalty Systems and Music Health were the first winners.
This year’s contest was held in association with Amazon Music, ASCAP Lab, The Raine Group, Red Bull Media House, Reed Smith and Universal Music Group.
Details of each of this year’s winners follow: click on the titles to find out more from their websites.
Tickets For Good
Tickets For Good sources free and discounted tickets for people who work for Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) as well as charity workers. It launched its pilot platform a couple of years ago, and by 2022 had signed up 100,000 members.
By the time Robbie Williams (yes, that one) chipped in to a £500k seed-funding round for the company this year, that number had doubled, with Tickets For Good having processed more than 300k tickets since its launch.
“We’re absolutely delighted to be selected as a winner in recognition for our work at tickets for good filling venues, increasing revenues and growing audiences for live events,” said Tickets For Good in a statement.
“We will continue to help our partners in providing access to close user groups across the NHS charity and cost of living sectors. Thank you to all the team at Music Ally for your support.”
StanPass
Ukrainian startup StanPass has built a platform to help independent labels run gamified marketing campaigns for their artists and releases, based around the idea of ‘quests’ which can be set and run on the artists’ own websites.
It supports campaigns on YouTube and Instagram as well as TikTok, and has plans to add mini-games and augmented-reality (AR) quests to its offering in the future.”
“It’s super important for an early-stage startup like ours to get validation from the big names in the industry. We’re super grateful that Music Ally and the judges are on board with our vision,” said StanPass in a statement.
“This win is a great signal for the StanPass team. It shows we’re on the right track and it’s going to help us speed up our growth.”
Music Tomorrow
French startup Music Tomorrow is putting big music data to work in helping labels, distributors and agencies get more streams for their artists. It sets itself clearly in opposition to the companies who charge to boost streams through unethical manipulation.
Rather than peddling bots or algorithm-gaming snake oil, its focus is “streaming recommendation systems optimisation” (RSO for short) for its clients, helping them to understand what’s driving streams now, and how they can improve that.
“At Music Tomorrow, our commitment is to make music and data readily available to everyone. In our recent endeavours, we’ve developed tools that shed light on how recommendation algorithms assess artists, and that’s no easy feat,” said the company in a statement.
“We are sincerely grateful for the recognition our work has garnered from influential figures within the industry.”
Masterchannel
Norwegian startup Masterchannel is one of the latest companies exploring AI-powered mastering technology. It claims to deliver “results as good as a mastering engineer” for raw tracks uploaded to its platform.
The service has been used to master tracks that have notched up multiple millions of streams. It’s also eyeing the B2B market, pitching a white-label AI mastering service to music services. It’s also keen to work with distributors, demo platforms and anywhere else artists are uploading or distributing tracks.
“To be selected as the winner of this year’s Music Ally SI:X is a great feat for us,” said Masterchannel in a statement.
“Music creation is drastically changing, with our AI tools playing an important role in this transformation. Therefore, this award is strong validation that our impact in the industry is being recognised.”
Flame2Fame
Flame2Fame is one of the companies trying to bring more sustainability to the music industry. It makes products from recycled materials: from guitar straps made from fire-hose to a guitar and bass made from “spent coffee grounds, chopsticks and denim from end-of-use garments”.
The Germany-based startup works with professional musicians to design its products, which are then sold from the company’s online store. The products are produced in partnership with an organisation called Lebenshilfe, which runs workshops for people with disabilities. Every product has a label with the name of the person who made it, too.
“We are so grateful for winning this award. It is not just for us, but for everyone who wants to make this world a better place!” said Flame2Fame in a statement.
12on12
This is a startup for record lovers. The name stands for 12 tracks on a 12-inch vinyl record, with the startup building a brand around vinyl compilations with curators drawn from the worlds of music, fashion and art.
Veteran producer Timbaland recently took a strategic stake in the company, joining Swizz Beatz – already a partner of his for livestreaming brand Verzuz – in this role. The company is expanding into limited-edition art prints, clothing and accessories
“We are delighted to be selected as a Music Ally SI:X winner,” said the startup in a statement. “At 12on12, our aim is to bring a tangibility back to music through our vinyl records and in real life experiences that accompany each drop.”
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