ENGINEEARS PERKS UP WITH SEED ROUND

EngineEars, a vertical software platform for artists, engineers, producers and record labels to facilitate discovery, session bookings, payments, project management and distribution, has announced a $7.5m seed round led by venture capital firm Drive Capital.

Also participating in the round are Slauson & Co., 645 Ventures, SALXCO’s venture arm FLÜS, EMPIRE CEO Ghazi, LVRN Co-Founders Tunde Balogun and Sean Famoso and artists like Kendrick Lamar, YG, DJ Khaled, Mustard and Russ.

EngineEars was founded by multi-Grammy-winning audio engineer Derek "MixedByAli" Ali, who said, "when I started my career as an independent audio engineer, I witnessed first-hand the fragmented and antiquated processes inhibiting my potential growth as a small business. Based on necessity, we went out to develop the EngineEars platform. With music creation exploding at all levels, the need for collaboration tools and streamlined file transfer, scheduling and payment solutions has never been greater."

CTO Luke Sorenson says EngineEars can now provide "an easily searchable repository of vetted recording studios for artists to access globally," thus enabling studio owners to "streamline the management of bookings through seamless scheduling and direct calendar integration, and automated payment splits to the personnel working each studio session."

Think of it like an Airbnb system for recording studios—which have been retrofitting their facilities en masse to be able to work with emerging spatial audio technologies. "We're big believers in founders working to solve their own problems, and Derek is absolutely doing that by bringing efficiencies to the historically inefficient process of payments and collaboration in the music industry," said Drive Capital Partner Chris Olsen. "We believe in Derek’s vision to build EngineEars into the platform where investment in music happens."