Consumer

Investing in [untitled]

Anish Acharya Posted October 28, 2024

We’re entering a new era for music. Just as previous technology advancements like recorded music or synthesizers fundamentally changed the music-making process, AI is also evolving how music is made, and by whom. As a person who makes music myself, I’ve experienced firsthand how AI minimizes friction from inspiration to output. Industry-wide, we’re seeing AI boost the capabilities of existing artists and producers and help more people than ever to make music – many for the first time. With AI, if you can hear it, you can make it.

But while we’re poised for an explosion in music creation, the software used by musicians is stuck in the past. Artists rely on clunky and expensive desktop tools — much of it made in the early 2000s —  to produce, edit, and distribute their work. Mobile has been neglected almost entirely: without dedicated, music-focused software, artists are stretching iMessage and the Notes app to their limits. None of these tools reflect the seriousness or precision with which artists approach their craft.

Enter [untitled], which is building the new operating system for musicians. Their mission is to nurture and maximize the creative process for everyone, inspiring professional artists, producers, and even bedroom hobbyists to create. [untitled]’s beachhead product is an app for iterating on and sharing music on mobile, online or offline. Users can upload, organize, and even edit their music on the go with AI-powered features, including stem splitting. Importantly, musicians can also selectively share and track listenership of songs or albums, with analytics on who is engaging with their music and when. This unlocks the ability for artists to collaborate with their teams securely. 

Each month, more than 100,000 musicians and their teams are already using [untitled]. The product is already beloved by some of the world’s biggest and most inspiring artists and producers. 

To date, productivity tools have been built for many other industries — think Figma for design, Notion for the workplace, or Frame.io for video. However, the tools available across the music industry are outdated and fragmented, causing artists to waste time worrying about their workflow. The market for musicians is already large — more than 10 million people have published a track on Spotify — and we expect it to grow as AI expands who makes music and how it is used to enrich our lives. We believe [untitled] will be a foundational product for musicians in this new era. 

[untitled] founders Dan Lilienthal and José Chayet are the epitome of founder-market fit. They’ve known each other since birth, grew up inspired by their older brothers who made music, and make music on their iPhones themselves. They have a deep appreciation for the creative workflow and, as a result, have built a product that musicians find intuitive and delightful. (Check out the team’s Texting Interviews series to get a sense of how they collaborate with musicians.) 

The [untitled] team is dedicated to building the next great, cross-platform product for musicians to do their work. In the future, you can imagine the platform offering more features for creating and editing music, team collaboration, and tools for distribution and consumption – like the ability to distribute music to DSPs or create album art or music visualizers. 

We’re thrilled to announce we are leading [untitled]’s Series A. If you make music (or have ever wanted to try!), you can learn more on their website or check out their app. The team is also hiring

About the Contributor

Anish Acharya

Anish Acharya is an entrepreneur and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. At a16z, he focuses on consumer investing, including AI-native products and companies that will help usher in a new era of abundance.

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