Text | Boya Wu
Recently, business and financial management platform HIFI acquired The Music Fund.
The Music Fund uses artificial intelligence to drive its "smart pricing algorithm", and provides financing solutions for musicians based on the performance of musicians on streaming media such as Spotify and Apple Music .
The algorithm promises to provide musicians with prepaid cash within 24 hours, and to pay part of the royalty income within the specified time. And the company stated that it allows creators to retain 100% of the copyright and all revenue from future releases.
As early as the beginning of 2019, Techstars Music led by Bob Moczydlowsky and Warner Music Group invested 120 million US dollars in The Music Fund. So where did HIFI, which acquired The Music Fund, come from?
HIFI is a business and financial management platform launched in the United States last year. Its main business sectors include Royalties Dashboard and Cash Flow.
Among them, Royalties Dashboard is a data financial platform that aggregates records, distribution, PRO, music copyright agents, etc., and Cash Flow will pay musicians twice a month like a salary. Royalties Dashboard is free for musicians to use, and Cash Flow charges a small management fee based on a certain percentage of musicians’ income.
The company stated that Royalties Dashboard allows musicians to view their income in all royalty accounts and help them make better business decisions. And Cash Flow protects musicians from the ups and downs of royalty income and helps them maintain their daily lives.
HIFI's investors include venture capital firms Lerer Hippeau and Flybridge Capital. Matt Pincus, who was the founder and CEO of SONGS Music Publishing, also joined the board of HIFI.
Music Fund co-founder and CEO John Funge & co-founder and CTO Thomas Jerde
As part of this acquisition, The Music Fund co-founder and CEO John Funge will also join HIFI As the chief technology officer, Thomas Jerde, another co-founder and chief technology officer of The Music Fund, was appointed as HIFI's vice president of data science.
Funge and Jerde both have deep backgrounds in data science and finance. They have developed an AI-based real-time automatic music valuation model (AVM) at the world's leading system investment company Winton Group, and established The Music Fund at the end of 2018 Later, the artist financial platform process was developed.
The company said that it can help musicians earn $50,000 in revenue within 24 hours, and the acquisition will also provide financial support for new musicians from HIFI.
HIFI said that since its launch last year, it has received thousands of membership applications and has tracked hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties on behalf of its customers. Looking at the entire market, music, video, and virtual currency have continued to make progress this year. Several recent initiatives have also shown that platforms such as , YouTube and Spotify are applying digital payment technology to solve complex royalty management processes.
Regarding this acquisition, Matt Pincus said that the key to providing fair compensation for musicians is to make effective income forecasts across the entire income range, and the acquisition of The Music Fund will further enhance HIFI's capabilities.
HIFI’s CEO Damian Manning also said that one of the major advantages of the artificial intelligence prediction system is that it can learn from data points outside of historical revenue. This powerful function will provide a wider range of emerging musicians with revenue. chance.
Reference:
"HIFI Acquires The Music Fund Bringing AI to Bear on Sluggish Creator Economy Payments"
"Matt Pincus-Backed Hifi Buys Ai-Powered Artist Funding Startup The Music Fund"
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