A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya Raises $5.5 Million for AI-Free Music Apps
Updated
Updated · TechCrunch · Sep 14
A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya Raises $5.5 Million for AI-Free Music Apps
1 articles · Updated · TechCrunch · Sep 14
Summary
$5.5 million in pre-seed funding will back A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya’s push to build music-interaction apps that avoid generative AI prompting and focus on hands-on remixing.
Founder Máuhan M Zonoozy, Spotify’s former head of innovation, said streaming solved access but left music engagement centered on passive consumption rather than participation.
The startup already has a slate of small “single” apps, including Speed Surfer, Usersound, Stacks, Drops and Sampler, while its bigger iOS product bop lets users remix songs on a grid and export clips to TikTok or Instagram.
Dawn Ostroff, Spotify’s former chief content and advertising business officer, joined as an advisor as investors including Mantis VC, SV Angel and BoxGroup backed the round.
This year, the company plans a broader “musical sandbox mixer” and a multiplayer remixing feature, betting that human taste and collaboration gain value as AI-generated music becomes more abundant.