Stockholm-based startup anotherblock has collected €4 million in a seed round with leading support from Stride.VC in the UK and participation from Axwell of Swedish House Mafia. anotherblock allows fans to access music rights in popular songs and aims to democratize music ownership. The funding will be used to scale up operations, reach a broader audience outside the crypto space, and create a more open marketplace. The company’s goal is to empower new artists and the independent music scene by providing a platform to fund their careers and engage their communities.
Since its launch in August 2022, anotherblock has become a prominent player in the international music/web3 scene with their blockchain-based marketplace. The company is committed to promoting the democratization of music rights and has granted fans access to streaming rights in worldwide hit songs from artists like The Weeknd, Rihanna, Martin Garrix, Alan Walker, Offset, and R3HAB.
The €4 million investment round is led by UK-based Stride.VC, whose team has backed early-stage businesses such as Deliveroo, Zoopla and Daily Motion. Axwell, the DJ, producer, and record company director, also becomes the second Swedish House Mafia member, after Steve Angello, to invest in anotherblock.
“anotherblock are reinventing the user experience of music ownership. They have a very clear belief – that anyone should be able to own a share of their favourite songs and earn royalties alongside their favourite artists. This proposition could be a seismic shift for an industry that has traditionally been extremely protective over the ownership of IP. Their artist and fan-centred approach utilises the core technologies and values of Web3 to enable the ownership of a song to be atomised; its ownership to be decentralised; and the balance of power and value capture in the industry to be democratised. They have the potential to build the platform that opens up liquidity, transparency and equity in the music economy and go on to power the market for music rights globally.” said Gabbi Cahane, partner at Stride.VC.
“I have followed anotherblock since the beginning, and it is clear that their work aligns with their vision. Enabling greater rights flexibility is the future of the music industry. It creates a whole new freedom for creators to share the financial incentives with fans, which are the most important thing we have.” said Axwell.
anotherblock also revealed that its strategy will now focus on scalability and a shift towards a more open marketplace. The goal is to create a model that allows a wider range of new artists and the fast-growing independent scene to benefit from the platform to fund their careers and engage their communities.
“Our primary focus in the first year was to educate and prove our product, but going forward, it’s about reaching an even wider audience, particularly outside of the crypto space, and enabling even more creators to get involved. The blockchain ecosystem currently boasts more active users and greater opportunities to engage them than ever before, opening up endless possibilities for the combination of music rights and technology. Having world-class backers on board for this journey is extremely valuable.” said Michel D. Traore, CEO and co-founder of anotherblock.
Next up, Anotherblock is set to drop the good old #1 US Billboard Hot 100 hit from 2006, “This is Why I’m Hot”, together with MiMs and his two co-producers, DannyBoyStyles and BlackOut, on June 7th.
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