SURF Music, the innovative platform bridging the gap between Asian music markets and the West through exclusive placements and borderless music creation and collaboration, has been named to Fast Company’s annual list of the Most Innovative Companies for 2024, solidifying their spot as No. 4 in the “Small and Mighty” category.
This year’s Most Innovative list highlights the likes of Nvidia, OpenAI, and Hybe, among other global giants.
SURF Music finds itself among incredible companies in the Small and Mighty category, including those addressing climate change, improving the tax season experience, and using AI to keep our pets safe. SURF Music earned its inclusion “for discovering a new way for musicians to make money from songs they’ve created.”
“We’re thrilled for SURF Music to be recognized as ‘Small and Mighty’ amidst global giants. This achievement reinforces our belief in the power of music to bridge the East and the West, and that we can only achieve that through transparency and accessibility for global collaboration and creation,” said SURF Music CEO Kenneth Kobori.
“It’s not about the size of our company, but the magnitude of our ideas and the impact we strive to make for creators across the music industry.”
Tokyo-based SURF Music has been making waves well beyond Japan’s borders, securing key partnerships with major players in Korea and in the United States. The platform’s user base, which has grown 266% since March 2023, hails from more than 27 countries around the world.
SURF Music placed two songs, “New Rise” and “Breakdown Anthem,” by Super Dragon, which peaked at #2 on the Oricon charts last week and top 10 in Billboard Hot 100 Japan. The songs were written by SURF collaborators in the UK, Sweden, Korea, and Japan.
“This year’s small and mighty honorees with fewer than 50 employees prove that size is hardly indicative of success and that a company doesn’t need to be large to have an outsize impact,” Fast Company stated in the announcement Tuesday morning.
SURF Music recently returned to SXSW in Austin, TX after garnering an Innovation Award finalist nod in 2023. Kobori took the stage to discuss the ins and outs of the Japanese music industry and explain why songwriters and artists in the West should want to break into this vibrant scene. The hugely popular panel, called Demystifying Japan: The World’s Second Largest Music Market, filled its room in the Austin Convention Center.
Kobori was joined by Tamayu Takayama of Copetin and Elisa Watanabe of Ultra Publishing/Helix Records. The discussion was moderated by Jonathan Streetman of Rock Paper Scissors.