What is Project Music and Why Do So Many Sponsors and Investors Believe in It?

A comprehensive list of sponsors and investors have lined up to support Project Music, the first tech accelerator dedicated to the future of the music business, and its upcoming 2016 program.Title sponsor, the Country Music Association (CMA), the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, home of Project Music, and Platinum Sponsors YouTube and LaunchTN are being joined by key business leaders and service providers from national and local industries.2016 Silver Sponsors& Donors are Avenue Bank, BMI, DevDigital, Flood, Bumstead, McCready& McCarthy, Patterson Intellectual Property Law, and Rock Paper Scissors, Inc.2016 Gold Sponsors are Anderson Benson Insurance, Belmont University Curb College of Entertainment and Music, Linda and Doug Howard, Music Business Association and Beth Lee and Thom Oliphant.Partners for 2016 are Flo Thinkery, Baker Donelson, Sherrard& Roe, LBMC and American Music Water.Additionally, industry heavyweights have joined the investor group to help provide over $45,000 in funding for each startup chosen to participate in the 2016 accelerator program. Investors for the coming year are Broken Bow Label Group, RCA recording artist Chris Young, Galante Entertainment, Landscape Capital, Maverick, Red Light Management, Shopkeeper Management, Sony/ATV, Beth Lee and Thom Oliphant, Universal Music Group, Vector Management, and Warner Music Group.“The Project Music accelerator investors for Year 2 represent virtually every aspect of the music industry, not only in providing funding, but also illustrating support for the program and the startups that will emerge from it. The group includes artists, managers, labels, publishers and others, showing support for the goal of identifying opportunities to grow and advance the industry,” notes Heather McBee, Program Director of Project Music.The Project Music program has already seen substantial growth based on the results of its recent application process, which saw total applicants grow by nearly 55% over 2015, drawing from 19 of the 50 U.S. states. A full 25% of applications came from outside the U.S., originating from five continents, including those from such far-reaching corners of the globe as Argentina, Australia and Azerbaijan.“Year two of Project Music is leading the charge to define Nashville as THE city for music-minded entrepreneurs to start, launch and grow their businesses,” states Stuart McWhorter, Nashville Entrepreneur Center CEO& President. “The depth of the 2016 Investor and Sponsor groups, coupled with applicants’ diverse hometowns reflect the program’s growth as it becomes known as the premier global destination for music tech entrepreneurship.”