UK music tech startup Audoo raises £5.2 million to help artists get their royalties

Audoo, a London-based music tech company working to ensure that artists and composers receive the royalties they’re owed, has raised a £5.2 million Series A round by Björn Ulvaeus and existing investors including Tileyard London. The fresh funding will go to the rollout of the startup’s ‘Audio Meter’, a small device that securely monitors what music a venue is playing, recognises and logs it, meaning that artists and composers could receive the royalties they are owed for the broadcasting of their work. For the device to work, however, the venues have to actually install it. To that end, Audoo says it’s working with Performance Rights Organisations (PROs) around the world to make installation a condition of venues gaining a license to play music. “If our technology is in place in all UK licenced premises, it will log around 80 million plays every 12 hours. We’ll know – with certainty and in detail – exactly what people are listening to. We will collect and report the biggest set of public performance music data ever created,” says CEO Ryan Edwards. The data captured, which is GDPR compliant, could also help record labels, publishers, booking agents and artists themselves to refine their strategy, book tours and better understand how real-world music is consumed, says the UK startup. Founded two years ago, the company previously raised a £1.2 million seed round in May 2019, according to Crunchbase.

Photo: Audoo CEO Ryan Edwards