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Utopia Music (Utopia Music AG) continues to be some of the talked about and acquisitive startups within the fashionable music enterprise – although not everybody, as but, has totally received their head round precisely what it’s constructing.
The Switzerland-headquartered firm’s oft-repeated slogan is “truthful play for each pay”, whereas it payments itself “a Swiss Music fintech firm leveling up the music industry by clear, clear, and dependable data-based options”.
Outdoors of its current flurry of acquisitions, that declare seems to heart upon Utopia’s proprietary music monitoring platform, typically referenced because the ‘Utopia Open Platform’ (UOP).
UOP makes a log at any time when tracks are spun/performed on radio stations and different broadcasters world wide, in addition to figuring out performs on streaming platforms and ingesting observe/music metadata.
Business sources recommend that Utopia is aiming to construct such a complete music data-ingesting machine that PROs and main music firms may have no alternative however to undertake/license the platform for their very own knowledge processing sooner or later.
Such an end result – relying on the licensing mannequin – may doubtlessly see Utopia obtain a small fee from near-enough each music transaction globally.
Some stay unconvinced by that risk. “It’s one factor to inform PROs that you’ve higher knowledge than them and even that your platform can eradicate the ‘black field’,” mentioned one music publishing veteran. “It’s fairly one other matter to assume you possibly can persuade all of them to unilaterally signal as much as your platform, and to vary their payouts.”
Others are extra optimistic. “The PROs confirmed they will’t be trusted to construct a World Repertoire Database themselves a couple of years in the past, when their joint project completely imploded,” mentioned one senior business supply.
“The trendy music enterprise calls for the transparency of 1 trusted supply of world knowledge. If that finally ends up being constructed by a startup in Switzerland, so be it.”
Apparently, specializing in constructing an “agnostic” knowledge engine for the worldwide music business shouldn’t be precisely how Utopia started life.
In a 2017 Bloomberg article, Utopia’s Swedish founder, Mattias Hjelmstedt, reportedly likened his startup, at that time, to “a brand new sort of report firm”.
Bloomberg urged that Utopia would “produce and e book stay performances and deal with artist logistics, similar to flights, cabs and resort rooms” for expertise that signed to its firm.
On the time, Hjelmstedt described Utopia as “a mix of a report label, a writer and a administration firm that works with artists to shrink the worth chain and use expertise to transparently lengthen their attain”.
By 2019, although, sources inform us that Utopia was sending out funding decks speaking up the ability of its ‘Utopia Open Platform’, and even evaluating itself to one in all Massive Tech’s largest names.
“Google is sensible of ALL net knowledge,” the deck apparently learn. “Utopia is sensible of ALL music knowledge.”
Utopia Music: The founder
In Mattias Hjelmstedt, Utopia has one of many extra fascinating founders presently working in music.
Earlier than launching Utopia in 2016, the serial entrepreneur was, at varied factors, involved in a professional eSports staff (specializing within the online game Counter-Strike), in addition to co-founding (after which leaving) two notable media streaming startups in Scandinavia: Voddler and Magine.
Voddler, which was initially based in 2005 after which re-launched in 2008/2009, was a VOD platform that some urged was Sweden’s reply to Netflix. (Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek tried Voddler, however famously didn’t rate it.)
Voddler raised over SEK 200 million in enterprise capital from the likes of Nokia Progress Companions and Deseven, however following a collection of heavy monetary losses it tumbled towards bankruptcy in 2018. (The chapter of Voddler Group AB was completed in March this yr, in keeping with filings in Sweden.)
Hjelmstedt additionally co-founded Magine, which launched in Sweden and Germany in 2013 as a cloud-based TV platform that allowed broadcasters to ship stay and time-shifted content material to customers. After its launch, Magine was quickly being dubbed “Spotify for TV” by an enthusiastic tech media.
Magine’s consumer-facing platform was discontinued in 2019, nonetheless, following a string of annual losses on the firm.
Magine continues to stay on at the moment as a B2B service, Magine Pro, serving to TV and video firms function their client choices by way of its SaaS platform. In keeping with firm filings in Sweden, Magine Holdings AB has continued to publish annual losses in its final 5 fiscal years (FY 2016-2021, see beneath).
Clearly, Mattias Hjelmstedt is expert at producing pleasure for his tech-driven startups, each inside the information media and within the funding group.
And with Utopia Music, he’s already constructed by far his largest firm but – one which has acquired a spread of well-known music companies over the previous 12 months.
Within the UK, these have included Sentric Music, Proper Music Group, and Absolute Label Services.
Within the US, Utopia’s M&A targets have included ROSTR, Quincy Jones’ Musimap, plus Lyric Financial – which advances royalties to impartial artists.
Following that Lyric Monetary acquisition in October final yr, Mattias Hjelmstedt boasted: “[Utopia is] supercharging your complete music business by creating new income streams, consolidating knowledge, lowering administration prices, and providing a broad spectrum of numerous and deeply revolutionary providers and successfully eradicating roadblocks and showstoppers which have slowed the business down for too lengthy.”
Now, in keeping with sources conversant in Utopia’s enterprise, talking anonymously to MBW, the corporate is trying to elevate a whole lot of thousands and thousands extra in capital, by way of a Sequence C funding spherical.
Utopia is hoping this Sequence C will give it a valuation within the a number of billions.
Utopia Music: The Sequence C ambition
MBW’s sources have seen proof that not less than one funding agent is presently providing would-be backers of Utopia a “pre-Sequence C funding alternative” at a €1.5 billion pre-money firm valuation.
Utopia is outwardly in search of a “robust institutional investor” to steer this pre-Sequence C spherical.
This, although, is simply the appetizer. The entrée is Utopia’s deliberate Sequence C spherical later this yr, during which it’s trying to elevate €300 million.
MBW’s sources inform us that UBS has been appointed to ship this Sequence C spherical at an estimated €2.5 billion to €2.7 billion valuation.
Utopia has apparently accomplished authorized/monetary due diligence with quite a lot of monetary establishments – together with BearingPoint, PWC, UBS and others – forward of this Sequence C elevate.
MBW’s sources verify to us that Utopia has already efficiently raised over €100 million prior to now 5 and a half years
The “pre-Sequence C” data despatched out by brokers on behalf of Utopia, say our sources, recommend that the corporate booked round €109.6 million in revenues and €18.3 million in gross revenue in 2021.
Utopia is now apparently heading in the right direction for €163.6 million of income and €47.5 million in gross revenue for 2022, and can also be concentrating on that it’ll flip EBITDA-positive (with revenues of greater than half a billion Euros) in 2023.
The corporate hopes to scale to “close to €800 million” in EBITDA, we’re instructed, by 2026.
To run you thru that once more: In keeping with MBW’s sources, Utopia is planning to show a presently EBITDA-negative firm into an €800 million-EBITDA-positive firm in simply the following 4 years.
Utopia has grown to over 650 workers so far, say MBW sources who’ve seen the info, following the acquisition of 13 music tech firms over the previous 12 months.
Utilizing the pre-Sequence C and Sequence C funding it’s presently elevating, Utopia apparently intends to amass 13-plus extra music tech firms over the subsequent 12 months.
(MBW reached out to Utopia for touch upon these figures earlier at the moment, however we’ve got not heard again.)
Utopia Genesis Basis, and dabbling with crypto
Utopia, keep in mind, is now a six-year-old startup. And, as we nodded to initially of this text, like quite a lot of startups, it’s made pivots alongside the best way.
Additionally like quite a lot of startups, it’s dipped its toe into the world of crypto.
In 2020, Utopia Music AG shaped an affiliation with a legally separate platform, Utopia Genesis Basis (UGF). UGF carried the identical ‘Utopia’ branding as its namesake firm (see inset).
UGF supposed to mint 100 million cryptocurrency tokens with an estimated market cap of USD $3.8 million, of which Utopia Music AG would obtain 30 million, in keeping with a white paper issued in April 2020.
This white paper urged that Utopia Music AG would obtain these tokens “as compensation for creating and creating totally different functions that Basis buys, but in addition as an incentive to proceed the event of functions on Utopia Platform that can thereafter be useful to the Basis”.
These tokens raised over USD $2.5 million from after they launched in December 2020. They’re now near being nugatory.
In keeping with Coinbase data, the $UOP token launched in December 2020 at USD $0.326 per token, rising to a peak of $0.540 in April 2021.
At the moment, nonetheless, that worth has flat-lined: it’s price $0.0058 per token, round 1/93rd of its value at peak final yr.
In a July 2021 Medium piece – the final to seem on the Utopia Genesis Basis (UGF) account so far – the UGF mentioned: “Tokenized belongings inside the business shall be paid for by our token, therefore as our platform transactions/artist asset volumes enhance, our $UOP appreciates in worth.”
That, clearly sufficient, wasn’t how issues performed out from therein on.
Maybe probably the most telling data on Utopia’s one-time ambition within the crypto discipline could be present in a job description posted by Utopia Music AG for a Enterprise Growth Analyst again in 2019, that still exists online.
The advert, which appeared over a yr earlier than the launch of UGF’s $UOP token in 2020, learn: “To be able to fund the event of the [Utopia Online Platform], Utopia Music is conducting a state-of-the-art Safety Token Providing (STO) in 2019.
“By partnering with the likes of PwC, IBM and Vice Media, Utopia can guarantee best-in-class execution throughout all features of the token sale, whereas specializing in rising the platform.
“Simply as importantly, Utopia has already secured some substantial conventional financing – and is on its strategy to elevate much more – offering the corporate with the wings it must take off and begin with its publishing catalogue acquisition technique.”
(These previous couple of phrases are fascinating, proper?! Utopia is unquestionably not occupied with shopping for catalogs as of late, an organization spokesperson instructed MBW in late 2021. Anyway, again to the crypto factor…)
At the moment, the official Utopia Genesis Foundation web site is not stay, and the UGF hasn’t posted on its Twitter account since January this yr.Music Enterprise Worldwide
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