Audius, a blockchain-based music streaming platform with over six million monthly users, announced Thursday that it raised $5 million from some of the music industry’s top people.
Investors in Audius include artists such as Katy Perry, The Chainsmokers, Nas, Jason Derulo, Pusha T, Mark Gillespie, as well as industry leaders like former Sony Music CEO Martin Bandier, CEO of the investment firm K5 Global Michael Kives, and CEO of the performance rights organization SESAC John Josephson.
This year has seen more artists enter the digital asset and blockchain space — especially Katy Perry, who is releasing an NFT collection in December of this year, and the ever-bullish Jason Derulo, owner of a CryptoPunk NFT.
“I’ve known that blockchain will change the world since I invested in Coinbase five years ago and I believe it might be the most important technology to ever hit the music industry,” said the rapper Nas in the statement. “Everyone who uploads to Audius can be an owner, you can’t say that about any other platform.”
Audius is a San Francisco-based company founded in 2018. To date, it has raised $8.6 million with contributions from Coinbase Ventures, Pantera Capital, Multicoin Capital, and other investors. In mid-August of this year, Audius became the first streaming platform to integrate with the video-sharing giant TikTok. Audius also has its own token, $AUDIO.