At the height of the music tech boom, acceptance into the Bob Moczydlowsky led accelerator TechStars Music was the most sought-after stamp of approval in music tech.
But symptomatic of an overall drop in investor interest in music tech as a category, the 2023 cohort will be TechStar Music’s last.
Plus, according to Moczydlowsky, the accelerator model is outdated.
“Even though the way we have been investing has been working, it has been held back by the constraints of an accelerator, which we feel is an outdated model,” Moczydlowsky, who had previously helped found Topspin, told Billboard. “The amount of capital we can provide is limited. It is also held back by the constraints of labeling it ‘music.'”
“We want to invest in companies solving problems for music, not music tech companies, but the reality is that founders see ‘Techstars Music’ on the door and they bring us their startup to help kids learn to play a violin,” he continued. “We actually believe instruments will become irrelevant and software will mainly replace them.”
“Our thesis now is we want to fund the future of entertainment, self-expression, and live events.”
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.
