After ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John backs London-based music tech startup Audoo

London-based Audoo, a music technology company has secured $5M (approximately €4.7M) in funding from Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Sir Paul McCartney’s MPL Ventures, and ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus, Tileyard, and Edinv.  

The capital infusion will help the UK company to expand operations and its business reach globally. The latest funding round takes the total funding raised by Audoo since its launch to $22M (approximately €20.8M). 

In a statement to Sky News, Sir Elton says, “Working as a musician can be seen as all glitz and glamour but for the vast majority of artists, especially new and emerging acts, this isn’t the case. It’s often brutally unfair and this sadly extends into being paid correctly. Right now, artists are not being paid accurately for their plays because the data simply doesn’t exist. People have given up on their dreams and we’ve lost talent and future stars because of this disparity. That’s why we’ve invested in Audoo and their world-class technology, to help create a more transparent system for everyone, and ultimately to keep the music alive.”

Audoo: Compensating artists and composers

Audoo was founded in 2018 by Ryan Edwards after he missed out on royalty payments from the broadcasting of his song “Domino Effect”. 

Audoo is a music technology company that aims to create a more accurate system for compensating artists and composers when their work is played in public venues. 

The London company uses its monitoring device, the Audio Meter, to recognise songs played in public venues with a 99 per cent success rate.

The Audio Meter tracks actual played music and relays that information in real-time to help Performing Right Organisations (PRO) digitise and streamline their processes, resulting in more accurate and transparent royalty distribution.

Audoo’s audio meter plugs into commercial establishments such as shops, restaurants, gyms, and bars and takes a digital imprint of the music played. 

This data is then analysed for PROs who ensure artists, composers, and publishers are compensated fairly and accurately, every time their music is played.

Currently, the Audio Meter is present in 10 countries across four continents, claims the company.