Music financing startup Duetti has closed its $32 million funding round from investors including Viola Ventures and Viola Credit, Roc Nation, Untitled and Presight Capital.
The startup, founded by former TIDAL Chief Operating Officer Lior Tibon and a former Apple Music Business Development executive, Christopher Nolte, says it aims to “democratize music catalog sales, management and marketing”.
We wrote about Duetti in December after the Verge reported that the company was looking to buy catalog rights from independent musicians and monetize them with data and social media marketing.
This latest funding round comes less than a year after Duetti raised $7 million in a seed funding round.
Since its founding last year, Duetti claims that it has “become an essential business tool” for over 60 independent artists including CVBZ, Sylvan LaCue, and Croosh, and that it has partnered “on deals across over 100 tracks”.
To date, Duetti claims that it has facilitated music rights acquisitions that saw artists receive up to $400,000 per deal.
With the funding, Duetti aims to scale the business “to match the growing demand” for its services, by expanding the team, partnering with new artists, “and implementing new financial optimization opportunities for acquired tracks and catalogs”.
Average deals facilitated by Duetti take roughly 30 days to complete, according to the company.
Duetti is interested in carrying out these deals for artists who have been on streaming platforms for at least two years, and have garnered at least 500,000 streams in the last 12 months.
“We are arming artists with the information they need to choose when, and how, to leverage their assets from a position of strength.”
Lior Tibon
Tibon said: “In recent years, the trend of legacy A-list musicians selling their entire catalogs has left independent artists out of the equation.
“Now, artists at all stages of their careers can easily capture the potential of their tracks and catalogs to help them reach the next step of their journey.”
Added Tibon: “We are arming artists with the information they need to choose when, and how, to leverage their assets from a position of strength.”
“Duetti’s cutting-edge technology enables efficient analysis of an artist’s potential for successfully monetizing a catalog or track.”
Avi Zeevi, Viola Ventures
Avi Zeevi, Co-Founder of Viola Ventures and a fintech investor, said: “Duetti’s cutting-edge technology enables efficient analysis of an artist’s potential for successfully monetizing a catalog or track – we are incredibly excited by the potential of their business model and the new, independent investment class it unlocks.”
Added Zeevi: “Independent artist revenue growth is outpacing the entire industry and their highly scalable model returns revenue uncorrelated to broader market and economic conditions. A win-win for investors and musicians.”
Music Business Worldwide
