Audio Chateau Records, a new label under Jared Gutstadt’s Audio Up Media podcast company, has secured $4.5 million in funding from a group of investors including Glen Barros, Gillian Hormel, and Jonathan Schulman.
Following the fundraising, the company has brought in investors Barros and Schulman as the label’s first appointed board members. Barros is a Managing Partner at Exceleration Music. He left his role as Chief Operating Officer of Concord at the end of 2019, following a 25-year tenure, to establish Exceleration Music.
Exceleration has since been on a buying spree in recent years, acquiring Chicago-based label Bloodshot Records in 2021; the catalog of US independent label Kill Rock Stars in 2022; and Redeye, the distribution partner of Beggars, Domino and other indie labels, in 2023.
Audio Chateau has also announced a pair of strategic hires to strengthen its leadership team. Industry veteran Grayson Flatness joins as A&R consultant, bringing a wealth of experience from his tenure at Sounds Good. Kate London, with a background at Global Music Rights, Interscope Records, and Warner Records, will take on the role of Head of Legal and Business Affairs for the label.
Launched in January 2024, Audio Chateau Records is on track for a number of releases this year. The label’s roster includes regional Mexican artist Grupo Linea, comedy-country star Uncle Drank, Randy Savvy of the Compton Cowboys, and the health and wellness group Maejor Audio Sunshine, featuring producer and recording artist Maejor, English singer-songwriter Bipolar Sunshine, and songwriter, producer and Audio Up CEO Jared Gutstadt.
Prior to its launch, the label partnered with Virgin Music Group “to launch new talent into the stratosphere.”
“So much of our audio entertainment incorporates original music, and we are constantly discovering and working with new talent that deserves to be heard by a wider audience,” Gutstadt was quoted by Billboard as saying in December 2023.
Gutstadt, a Canadian-born musician, is a 25-time ASCAP Award winner. Prior to establishing Audio Chateau’s parent company, Audio Up Media, in 2020, he founded the creative music agency Jingle Punks in 2008. Jingle Punks, which has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, and London, was sold to Canadian rights management company ole in 2015.
In December 2022, Audio Up Media closed a Series C funding round, giving it a $150 million pre-money valuation. This investment, totaling “just shy” of $10 million, brought Audio Up’s overall funding to $20 million, the company confirmed to MBW at the time.
Audio Up also counts Primary Wave Music Publishing and New York-headquartered Reservoir Media among its backers. In 2022, Audio Up entered into a strategic alliance with Universal Music Publishing Group to sign songwriters and create unique music for Audio Up’s original podcast programs.
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