Mobile music app Voisey has attracted funding from a number of investors ahead of an ‘imminent’ US launch.
The app will also be rolled out worldwide throughout 2019, having soft launched last December in Norway, and late January in the UK.
Voisey is a collaboration between Norwegian and English music industry entrepreneurs Olly Barnes (Universal Music, Rdio, Space Ape Games), Erlend Hausken (Soundio, Vibble, Opera), Pål Wagtskjold-Myran (Soundio, Vibble) and Dag Langfoss-Håland (Sony Music, Soundio, Vibble).
A number of high-profile investors have come on board to back the platform, including Tim Clark (Co-founder, IE music, whose clients include Robbie Williams), Denzyl Fiegelson (Founder of Platoon), Rak Sanghvi (Global President, Spirit Music Group), Andy Saunders (Founder, Velocity Communications) Erling Maartmann-Moe (Alliance Venture Capital), Simon Hade (Space Ape Games) and various other entrepreneurs and angels, including original seed investors Jason Brook and Terry Fisher.
Currently available on iOS only, Voisey allows users to record short videos using professional vocal effects and backing tracks provided by hundreds of producers.
Videos are a maximum of 1 minute in length and centred around hooks rather than full songs.
Every recording is open to collaboration, with users having the option to split their videos into four different tracks, either of themselves, or other Voisey users contributing harmonies.
The platform is already showing signs of rapid growth with 2,000 new Voisey videos being uploaded each day.
“The growth and engagement in Voisey has been really exciting given the fact that we’ve pretty much kept it a secret so far, but the biggest surprise has been the quality of talent and original songs that have been appearing on the service.”
Olly Barnes, Voisey
Early analysis of Voisey users has found that individuals view on average 25 videos each per day, with the first million plays registered in the four months since launch.
Most notably, over 90% of all videos uploaded and played are original songs, written by the Voisey users, with the remaining 10% being covers of existing popular songs.
A&R executives are already turning to Voisey as a talent discovery platform and has led to a partnership with Platoon.
The independent artist development and distribution company will be releasing the first single from Voisey’s current most popular user, Olivia Knight, in late June.
Olly Barnes, co-founder of Voisey said: “The growth and engagement in Voisey has been really exciting given the fact that we’ve pretty much kept it a secret so far, but the biggest surprise has been the quality of talent and original songs that have been appearing on the service.
“We’re seeing new artists appear, write original hooks, attract collaborators and start establishing a passionate fan following within hours.
“The thousands of messages we receive each week from around the world suggests that wider availability for Voisey, alongside our continued focus on building the best possible mobile environment for creating music could see Voisey trigger a long-awaited revolution for how artists and songwriters emerge and take their first steps.”
Pictured [Left to Right]: Voisey founders Olly Barnes, Erlend Hauskenand and Pål Wagtskjold-Myran.Music Business Worldwide
