Photo Credit: TCDisrupt / CC by 2.0
High-profile investors including Troy Carter, Scooter Braun, Jared Leto, Forerunner Ventures, and Sequoia Capital have dropped $1.5 million on Moment House, a Los Angeles-based ticketed-livestreaming platform.
Moment House shared details of its seed-funding round earlier today in an email to Digital Music News. In addition to scoring investments from Atom Factory founder Troy Carter, longtime Justin Bieber manager Scooter Braun, and 30 Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto, the year-old livestreaming startup has secured capital from Patreon CEO Jack Conte and Kygo’s Palm Tree Crew Investments.
As an aside, it’s unclear whether Braun and Carter – who quietly settled an ugly lawsuit in March of 2019 – have buried the hatchet or simply happen to possess stakes in the same project. Moreover, Braun and other investors fronted a total of $30 million to back virtual-concert startup Wave in June.
This newest arrival in the livestream-concert space also revealed that it will exclusively host a digital tour from YUNGBLUD, to commemorate his upcoming Weird! work. The 23-year-old’s sophomore album is set to debut on Friday, November 13th, while his 16-show Moment House performance series will initiate on November 16th. Tickets cost $5 apiece, and several of the hour-long gigs are already “sold out.”
From a technical perspective, Moment House appears to boast generally similar capabilities as other emerging livestream startups (we reported yesterday that Mandolin had raised $5 million of its own).
“Low latency streaming,” secure global ticketing options, and merchandise integration are among the characteristics touted by Moment House. Interestingly, though, the company noted that artists will receive 100 percent of income deriving from ticket sales, with Moment House generating revenue via a 10 percent surcharge paid by fans. (Customers also cover credit-card processing fees and licensing fees.)
Moving forward – and particularly once traditional concerts return to form – it’ll be interesting to see whether Moment House and its growing number of livestreaming competitors are able to maintain strong artist lineups and sizable audiences. Touching on the massive influx of related startups that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it, Moment House’s co-founder and CEO, Arjun Mehta, emphasized his platform’s far-reaching vision and aforementioned yearlong development cycle.
“The product isn’t a reaction to COVID, there is more to Moment House than just live streaming,” said Mehta. “We’re taking a first principles approach to crafting the perfect experience for fans. We do that by working backwards from the feeling of being a part of something special, no matter where you are in the world.”