Stockholm-based anotherblock has raised €4 million in a seed funding round. According to the company, after making “significant strides” in the past year, the new funding will be used to push the company further forward, on a global scale. Essentially what this means is that anotherblock has ironed out the wrinkles and now aims to take its methodology to a larger audience. Since early 2022 anotherblock has raised just north of €6 million.
Anotherblock’s €4 million seed round was led by Stride.VC, specifically Partner Gabbi Cahane, with Swedish producer Axwell and Swedish House Mafia participating in the round. Previous investors in the blockchain-based company include Inventures, J12 Ventures, Swedish House Mafia member Steve Angello, and Dune Analytics co-founder and CEO Fredrik Haga.
NFTs. Wow, it’s been a while hey? Alternatively, NFTs? Ffs again? Really? If either of these lines of thinking are hitting your plate right now, that’s fair. To those that still haven’t wrapped their heads around what an NFT is, and better yet, can be.
Last summer, you might remember that prior to Atomico’s investment in NFTPort, I was amongst the former but am now a convert. You see, much like the masses at bay, I was under the impression that NFTs had this or that to do with primates who weren’t challenged enough or Damien Hirst’s Bonfire (of the Vanities).
My words and epiphany from last year: “The easiest way for my simple mind to understand the latent potential of an NFT is that of a candy bar wrapper. Inside this wrapper, you can stuff any and all types of candy; images, videos, music, festival tickets, etc. if it can be digitised, it can have an NFT wrapped around it. The sole purpose of this wrapper is to serve as the definitive voice of ownership of this data. There's no question of who's candy bar it is. So put mine down.”
With that in mind, I urge you to abandon whatever presumptions you’ve held of NFTs (and forget about the money you lost; all we are is dust in the wind), as yes, anotherblock is another artistic application of an NFT, but its not a piece of art.
What it is, is perhaps something much more mentally tangible for the masses - the potential to cash in on a percentage of royalties.
Is there any guarantee you’ll ever see an ROI of 100%? Of course not. Is there potential? Certainly. And it doesn’t take a wizard to figure out that the highly likelihood of making any money from an investment like one that anotherblock is offering is based upon a number of factors, least of which being the popularity of the artist invested in, say nothing of the timing of when the gettin’ in is gettin’ good.
Anotherblock has cut deals with artists including The Weeknd, Rihanna, Martin Garrix, Alan Walker, Offset, and R3HAB, and now with the seed round funding wants to not only open the floodgates to welcome more artists, but also reach those that would like in on the action beyond those that are familiar and/or comfortable with the crypto space.
“It's about reaching an even wider audience, particularly outside of the crypto space, and enabling even more creators to get involved,” explained anotherblock co-founder and CEO Michel D. Traore. “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.”
On the investment, Stride’s Cahane commented, "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."
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