Mogul Secures $5M to Scale Royalty Tracking Tech
Mogul, a music technology platform co-founded by former SoundCloud executives Jeff Ponchick and Joey Mason, has raised $5 million in a new funding round. The investment, led by the Yamaha Music Innovations Fund, brings the company’s total capital raised to over $6.3 million since its inception.
The startup, which specializes in identifying and recovering lost music royalties, reports that its users have tracked $1.5 billion in earnings since the platform launched last year. The latest capital injection includes participation from the Urban Innovation Fund, Mindset Ventures, Fairway Capital Partners, as well as existing backers Amplify LA and Wonder Ventures.
Optimizing Artist Revenue
Mogul aims to solve the fragmented nature of music rights management. By consolidating data across various platforms, the tool helps artists identify gaps in their royalty collection. According to Ponchick, users typically see a 20% increase in royalty revenue after implementing the platform’s insights.
- Automated Audits: The software flags missing registrations, such as gaps between distribution services like DistroKid and collection entities like SoundExchange.
- Bulk Registration: New features allow for mass data entry to ensure catalogs are correctly attributed across all streaming services.
- Valuation Tools: A recently added feature provides estimates of an artist’s catalog value, broken down by individual tracks and specific revenue sources like Spotify or Apple Music.
Strategic Focus and Data Pipeline
Andrew Kahn, managing partner at the Yamaha Music Innovations Fund, highlighted Mogul’s data architecture as its primary competitive advantage. “We believe that Mogul has built the most comprehensive, first-party data pipeline that exists for residual income earners,” Kahn stated. He noted that while many competitors claim broad coverage, they often lack direct connectivity to royalty payers.
Currently, the company operates with a lean team of six employees, a number they intend to increase following this funding round. As part of a strategic shift, Mogul has discontinued its free tier, opting instead to focus on professional-grade automation tools that provide measurable value to artists.
The AI Challenge
Looking ahead, Mogul is preparing for the complexities introduced by AI-generated music. While performing rights organizations have begun to accommodate partially AI-assisted works, fully automated tracks present hurdles regarding ownership and attribution.
Kahn warned that the existing infrastructure, designed for human creators, may struggle with the “volume complexity” and “probabilistic authorship” associated with AI-generated content. Despite these looming regulatory and technical challenges, Ponchick maintains that the platform is well-positioned to track royalties regardless of how the content is produced.
The company enters a competitive space alongside firms like Notes.fm and Claimity, while also navigating industry-wide shifts, such as the 2024 launch of AllTrack’s integrated royalty collection division.