Swedish Disruptive Record Company Amuse Raises EUR3.5M Lead by Lakestar and Adds Former Sony Music Intl. CEO Edgar Berger to the Board
Stockholm, December 7th, 2017 - Swedish record company Amuse, with seven-time Grammy Award winner and front-man for the Black Eyed Peas will.i.am in the co-founder team, today announces that Edgar Berger, the former Chairman and CEO of Sony Music International, joins the company’s board in conjunction with the closing of its EUR3.5M Series A funding round. Dharmash Mistry, Partner at Lakestar and Jörg Mohaupt from Access Industries who was Amuse Founding Investor and participated in this round also joins the board.
“Amuse is the brand-new and brilliant partner to all unsigned artists around the world offering immediate global distribution and monetization of their work. As the world’s first mobile record label it operates with a special focus on transparency. First signings are showing great results. Diego and the team are going for all the right things and are determined to make a splash“, said Edgar.
Diego Farias, CEO at Amuse says: “Lakestar and Edgar’s passion for the transformative digital music scene align perfectly with ours. Edgar is a global music leader whose experience will be important for Amuse as we embark on our international expansion journey. We look forward to working with Edgar and Lakestar on the execution of our shared vision”.
Amuse offers a 100% free app for Android and iOS that anyone can use to distribute and keep track of both their music and royalties on all major music streaming services globally. By analyzing music consumption data of artists distributed through the app, Amuse finds interesting and upcoming artists that otherwise can be very difficult to discover. Amuse then offers a partnership including a royalty advance and marketing commitment to help the selected artists take the next step in their careers. Signed artists get a license deal and always keep ownership of their work.
About Edgar Berger:
Edgar is the former longtime Chairman & CEO International of Sony Music Entertainment and was a board member of the recorded music’s global industry main body IFPI. He has been a passionate tech investor for a decade.
About Lakestar:
Lakestar makes early and growth stage investments in disruptive, technology-enabled businesses predominantly in Europe and the United States driven by exceptional entrepreneurs. Lakestar and its general partners have historically invested in Facebook, Spotify, Skype, AirBnB, Klarna, and King.com, and more recent Lakestar investments include Algomi, GoEuro, AngelList, Makers Studio, Taulia and Harry’s. The Lakestar team is on the ground in Berlin, London and Zurich.
About Amuse:
Changing the game since 2017, Amuse is a music company combining custom-built technology for talent discovery with a passion for empowering the independent community. Offering a smooth take on digital music distribution and artist services, Amuse’s team monitors rising hits and catalogs on a global scale to license and develop the platinum selling tracks of tomorrow.
Born out of Stockholm, Sweden, Amuse was founded by music industry executives with a collective vision to redefine artist discovery and label deals. Today, its open music distribution platform caters to hundreds of thousands of artists across the globe, while the Amuse label manages an ever-growing catalog of 5000+ signed tracks from acts such as U.S. indie sensation Vundabar, platinum-selling Yot Club, rising Canadian rap/R&B artist 80purppp and Turkish chill trap powerhouse Serhat Durmus. Amuse has over 60 employees that operate in the USA, UK and the Nordics.
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