Photo Credit: Steve Aoki
Web3 music creation startup Arpeggi Labs has announced a $5.1 million seed round that drew support from a16z crypto, veteran songwriter and producer Louis Bell, Steve Aoki, and an array of others.
The year-old Arpeggi Labs, which says that it’s “building web3’s home for music creation and publishing,” just recently unveiled the multimillion-dollar raise. a16z crypto led the round with its mentioned contribution, while Steve Aoki and Louis Bell will join fellow investors Wyclef Jean, Electric Feel Ventures, and production duo Disco Fries in becoming Arpeggi advisors.
Additionally, Arpeggi disclosed that it had likewise received capital from 1confirmation (a Palo Alto-based “cryptocurrency focused investment firm”), Kygo’s Palm Tree Crew, WndrCo Ventures, DJ 3LAU, Joe Zadeh, the Audius Foundation, Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, Pantera Capital’s Paul Veradittakit, and Cooper Turley.
Arpeggi – which was founded by brothers Evan and Kyle Dhillon as well as their “lifelong” friend James Pastan – dedicated much of its announcement message to highlighting the numerous difficulties associated with collaborating in the contemporary music industry. These obstacles, the startup said, range from the inherent uncertainty of sharing unreleased projects to the hassle of receiving “legal clearances for the use of other artists’ work.”
Predictably, the points set the stage for a look at the capabilities of the company’s much-touted in-browser digital audio workstation, which enables creators to use all manner of samples, loops, and compositions, according to execs.
The professionals who conceive the DAW elements are “guaranteed” to receive attribution as different musicians make use of their creative efforts, and Arpeggi also says that it’s “completely free” to utilize. Moving forward, the entity intends to build out its DAW, integrate “with other web2 and web3 music platforms,” and develop “native social functions that make it easy to connect with the artists you make music with,” higher-ups said.
Earlier this month, Web3 music revenue share platform Reveel announced a $1.3 million pre-seed round.
Moreover, the raises of Arpeggi and Reveel represent only some of the many multimillion-dollar rounds that Web3 startups have publicly detailed to this point in 2022, which has brought with it a “crypto winter” and a corresponding downturn in NFT sales.
To be sure, August saw “Web3 lifestyle platform” MetaSing reveal a $3 million raise, which followed a reported $11 million round for Web3 fan-community and NFT startup Highlight, $9 million in seed funding for Matt Jones’ Medallion, and, towards 2022’s beginning, a cool $4.5 million for Dequency, the self-described “world’s first Web3 music synchronization licensing marketplace.”