Beatoven.ai, AI-backed music tech start-up, that was started 10 months ago recently raised raised $1 million as part of it’s Seed round. It aims to bridge the void for content creators by giving them access to royalty-free, affordable, mood-based, quality music composed by the Artificial Intelligence that has been developed by the company.
The algorithm and compositions built especially for the platform will be patented by the founders Mansoor and Siddharth. Khan is a distinguished sitar player who hails from the Dharwad Gharana of music and Siddharth Bhardwaj has years of experience in technology and sound design. Both are alumnis of Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, Atlanta and Music Technology Group at UPF, Barcelona and are undergrads from NIT and IIIT.
Beatoven.ai intends to build a collaborative environment for musicians and AI to co-exist and create monetization opportunities for music producers, session musicians and instrumentalists.
Excerpts from an interview with Mansoor Rahimat Khan, Co-founder and CEO Beatoven.ai
What led to the idea of starting a company like Beatoven.ai and when did you start business in India?
India is a country that is flooded with talented content creators and independent artists. Over the years we have realised one of the major problems that content creators have been facing is creating royalty free music and being able to use free background music for their content without falling prey to copyright issues. Music plays an integral role in creating content. No matter how much the content industry profits and thrives one of the biggest concerns of every creator today is accessing easy, affordable, royalty-free music. In today's fast-paced digital industry, creators continue to face a constant hassle in acquiring and licensing music. In order to solve the music acquisition and licensing problem faced by thousands of creators today, we came about with the idea of launching Beatoven.ai.
How is the platform redefining the way music is composed and consumed today?
Beatoven.ai is a web-based application where creators can create background music with the help of AI. The interface of the application is user friendly and enables individuals without any knowledge of music, to create background music by simply specifying the mood, genre, transition and instrument preferences. The creator tool enables creators to customize music according to their content. Moreover, independent musicians play a pivotal role in the functioning of Beatoven.ai.
The music is sourced from renowned independent musicians hence the brand stands strong with its vision of not replacing musicians with technology. The technology that is used as part of this product is a mix of artificial intelligence and music theory. Using a combination of the two, Beatoven.ai helps creators compose an original soundtrack based on the user’s preferences. We aim to simplify the way music is composed and created today.
What is the revenue model?
Currently, Beatoven has approximately 200 active users on its platform across India and the US market. In a few months we plan to introduce a subscription-based model with three different categories of $20 per month for individual content creators, $40 per month for small advertising agencies and $100 per month for production houses.
How will the company utilise the funds raised?
Beatoven.ai plans to onboard 10,000 new users by the end of 2022. With the two rounds of funding till date (a pre-seed round of $55K from Entrepreneur First and a seed round of $1 million from Entrepreneur First and Redstart Labs, a subsidiary of Info Edge) the company will be focusing on partnerships, product development and onboarding musicians who will be continuing to supply music samples for the platform. Our target consumers are high frequency video and podcast content creators such as YouTubers, advertising agencies and wedding film production houses. We aim to hit an ARR of $1 million by the beginning of 2023 (Q1 2023).
Various new age platforms such as the metaverse are helping content creators and independent artists produce music and establish their digital footprint
The pandemic has accelerated the growth of in-house entertainment in a big way, tech giants are exploring virtual space and involving music like never before. Moreover, the metaverse has integrated social media, gaming, consumerism and other forms of entertainment onto one digital universe that holds a bright future for all, especially the music industry. The virtual platform has opened up a wide door for musicians that can attract viewers far beyond the stadium and the experience is far superior than listening to music on the radio. Metaverse gives the artist the ability to perform more frequently, thus generating more revenue. It has opened up a Pandora's box full of opportunities for the music industry.
Musicians can now organize virtual concerts, connect with fans, form smart contracts of their digital releases which can be resold, or even include fans while creating music videos to mint the cover of the album. The idea of fractional ownership of music by fans in the form of NFTs sounds exciting and we are really curious to see how it pans out. The possibilities are endless and finally musicians will be able to earn their dues. The space is constantly evolving in a positive way for the music industry. Music is an integral part of the metaverse and although there are rules, they seem to be favoring musicians/artists at this point.
What sort of partnerships are you looking at as a part of your future strategy with artists and content creators?
We are looking at associations with renowned independent artists from the music fraternity who can supply us with melodious music samples which will help content creators create exclusive and affordable music for their content. We are also looking to partner with influential and innovative creators who can showcase the capability of our tool and how good customized music can enhance the overall experience of their content.
How do you propose to solve the licensing issue that content creators have been facing over the years
Beatoven.ai provides the creators with a web-based Artificial Intelligence backed application where they can create easily available, affordable and royalty free music for their content. The platform also helps creators customize their music according to their content. With the help of creator tools available on the platform, instead of browsing through exhaustive music libraries and hunting for royalty free music for hours, content creators can instead create their very own exclusive music tracks for their very own content within a few minutes.
