Apple has announced that is leading a $50 million investment round in company UnitedMasters, a firm that aims to help...
What happened
Apple has announced that is leading a $50 million investment round in company UnitedMasters, a firm that aims to help independent artists establish careers in the music business. This includes keeping rights to their actual recording masters, as well as enable individuals to easily sell tickets, merchandise and similar efforts.
Why it matters
Presumably, the ‘strategic partnership’ will lead to new integrations with Apple Music eventually, although UnitedMasters supports publishing to many platforms including Spotify, TikTok and such. What makes this deal unusual is that Apple typically acquires companies outright rather than a mere seed investor.
UnitedMasters is led by CEO Steve Stoute, who set up the independent music platform in 2017 after a long career at industry labels Sony Music and Interscope.
In a press statement, Apple SVP Eddy Cue said ‘UnitedMasters, like Apple, is committed to empowering creators’:
This news brief is based on reporting published by 9to5Mac on 2021-03-31. The original report is linked below.
9to5Mac
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