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Image credits: Anotherblock

anotherblock, a Swedish startup, announced that it has secured $1.2M (approx €1M) in a pre-seed funding round led by Stockholm-based early-stage VC J12. 

Other investors, including Sebastian Knutsson (founder of King, maker of Candy Crush), Mattias Miksche (founder of Stardoll and angel investor), and Mathias Ackermand (co-founder of Transmode and angel-investor), participated. 

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Blockchain-based marketplace

The Stockholm-based company is launching a blockchain-based marketplace for music rights in the first half of 2022 to democratise music ownership. 

Numerous creators are backing the company, including Steve Angello, a Greek-Swedish DJ, music producer, and label owner. He is also a member of the Swedish House Mafia. 

Advisors to the project include legendary Canadian-American music producer Doc McKinney (who received a Grammy for the Weeknd’s Starboy album).

What does anotherblock solve?

With the blockchain-based marketplace, anotherblock aims to solve a few crucial issues:

• The inability for ordinary investors to access prominent asset-class, difficulty liquidising.
• Opening-up music rights to a broader market and a corresponding undervaluation of the music itself.

According to the company, NFTs will be the initial focus, as it plans to introduce tokens connected to royalty rights. Artists who put their rights on the blockchain will receive a transaction payment/trade royalty every time the NFT is traded, in perpetuity. 

anotherblock says it will also focus on rights management for artists and labels on the blockchain once the NFT marketplace is established and operating.

At present, Michel D. Traore, CEO, leads the founding team and is joined by Sebastian Ljungberg as CTO and Filip Strömsten as COO. 

Michel D. Traore, CEO of anotherblock, says: “Sweden has a long history of being at the forefront of both creativity and innovation within the music industry, and we know that to maintain new and exciting music, creators must be supported and receive fair payment for their work. Unless profound changes are implemented in the way that artists can monetise their creativity, the music industry is in a race to the bottom. anotherblock is the solution: harnessing the latest technology and industry expertise, our platform will protect the creators, and support them as they continue enriching society and our culture.”