London-headquartered company raises further $5m in this funding round.
Aiding Audoo’s global expansion and mission to revolutionise public performance royalties for music creators, licensees and businesses worldwide.
Audoo—the music technology company revolutionising public performance royalties—has secured $5m (£4.1m) investment in its latest funding round, with investors Elton John and David Furnish, taking its total raised to $22m.
The global music and business icons join Bjorn Ulvaeus (ABBA/CISAC) and MPL Ventures as investors, alongside Tileyard and Edinv, in their support to improve the challenge of accurate royalty payments for musicians worldwide.
Elton’s music career achievements to date are unsurpassed in their breadth and longevity, among them he is one of the top-selling solo artists of all time with hits in six consecutive decades. Always a tireless champion of new artists, Elton is also a leading industry voice for artists’ rights, his investment in Audoo adding to the quest to continue improving the industry.
This round of investment follows key hires at Audoo including music publishing veteran Nigel Elderton as Chairman and Melanie Johnson as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). The executives bolster the company’s growing team and board of senior experts from APRA AMCOS, BMG, Bowers and Wilkins, PRS For Music, Sony Music Publishing, and more who have joined Audoo since its formation in 2018.
Elton John says: “Working as a musician can be seen as all glitz and glamour but for the vast majority of artists, especially new and emerging acts, this isn’t the case. It’s often brutally unfair and this sadly extends into being paid correctly. Right now, artists are not being paid accurately for their plays because the data simply doesn’t exist.
“People have given up on their dreams and we’ve lost talent and future stars because of this disparity. That’s why we’ve invested in Audoo and their world-class technology and data, to help create a more transparent system for everyone, and ultimately to keep the music alive.”
Ryan Edwards, Audoo Founder and CEO, comments: “Being able to draw on the support of artists in our mission to revolutionise the royalty space has been key to Audoo’s success. We are proud to welcome more icons to aid the next stage of our journey.
“With Elton and David’s strategic investment, we continue to champion and deliver a fairer and more transparent music industry for creatives to benefit for generations to come. We look forward to welcoming more international partners, licensees and creators to join us on this industry-changing journey.”
Audoo actively provides solutions to the challenges faced in public performance royalty data collection and payment distribution with its Audoo Audio Meter™ and unique insights platform that is rolling out across the UK, Europe, Australasia and Africa through industry-first partnerships.
Its groundbreaking technology powers the commitment to improving accuracy, transparency and reporting in quasi-real-time without burden for licensees, PROs and CMOs, to the ultimate benefit of music creators.
The installation of Audio Meters in businesses including cafés, bars, hair salons, restaurants, gyms and retail locations around the world, sees its small, discreet plug-in solution cut through foreground noise, identify the music, match the song data, and report this usage back to PRO and CMO partners – ultimately improving fair and accurate payments to rights holders with a greater level of accuracy.
