‘Audio Meter’ Developer Audoo Draws $5M Elton John Investment

About two months after formally inking partnership deals with PRS for Music and PPL, Audoo has secured an approximately $5.03 million (£4.1 million) investment from Elton John and David Furnish.

The London-based technology company, which has developed a tool called the Audio Meter to automatically measure and report song plays in public establishments, emailed DMN today about this latest multimillion-dollar round.

Having raised a total of over $22 million since arriving on the scene in 2018, according to higher-ups, Audoo now counts as investors CISAC president Björn Ulvaeus, Paul McCartney’s MPL Ventures, Edinv, and others.

Looking forward to 2024 and beyond, Audoo, which has during 2023 brought on Nigel Elderton as chairman and Melanie Johnson as chief commercial officer, underscored its broader goals of enhancing reporting accuracy and, in the process, helping deliver “fair and accurate payments to rights holders.”

Addressing his Audoo investment, Elton John emphasized public-play-measurement shortcomings’ perceived far-reaching impact on emerging talent.

“Working as a musician can be seen as all glitz and glamour but for the vast majority of artists, especially new and emerging acts, this isn’t the case,” said the 76-year-old. “It’s often brutally unfair and this sadly extends into being paid correctly. Right now, artists are not being paid accurately for their plays because the data simply doesn’t exist.

“People have given up on their dreams and we’ve lost talent and future stars because of this disparity. That’s why we’ve invested in Audoo and their world-class technology and data, to help create a more transparent system for everyone, and ultimately to keep the music alive,” concluded John, whose Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour is said to have generated north of $900 million.

And in a statement of his own, Audoo founder and CEO Ryan Edwards added: “Being able to draw on the support of artists in our mission to revolutionise the royalty space has been key to Audoo’s success. We are proud to welcome more icons to aid the next stage of our journey.

“With Elton and David’s strategic investment, we continue to champion and deliver a fairer and more transparent music industry for creatives to benefit for generations to come. We look forward to welcoming more international partners, licensees and creators to join us on this industry-changing journey.”

Earlier this week, the initially mentioned PPL, having reportedly paid out £12.7 million ($15.60 million) in Q3 neighboring rights royalties, signed several new artists for international collections. PRS for Music, on the other hand, in September bolstered its Nexus program with an “initiative to ensure songwriter and composer information is linked to recordings, prior to release.”