Amuseio AB, doing business as Amuse, is a global music company offering digital music distribution, funding and artist services to artists and managements, enabling them to stay independent while growing their careers. The company was founded as a modern alternative to major record labels in 2015 in Stockholm, Sweden by entrepreneurs Diego Farias, Andreas Ahlenius, Christian Wilsson, Guy Parry, and Jimmy Brodd. Amuse is based in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, with offices in London, UK and New York, US. In 2024, Giorgio D'Ambrosio was appointed interim CEO of the company.

Business model

Amuse's proprietary technology platform uses the streaming data from digital music distribution services to partner with independent artists with momentum. When the company discovers music it can help grow, Amuse's Artist Services team offers the artist a tailor made licensing deal, including services like funding, artist marketing and rights management, in return of a revenue split. The licensing deal means that artists remain in charge of master rights. Amuse's self-service digital distribution service lets any self-releasing and independent artists release and monetize their music, through all major streaming services. Amuse offers two subscription tiers for self-service music distribution - Boost and Pro - as well as connected services such as automated royalty advances, AI mastering and music performance insights.

History

Amuse was founded in 2015 by Diego Farias, Andreas Ahlenius, Christian Wilsson, Guy Parry, and Jimmy Brodd, with the ambition to redefine artist discovery and record label deals. The first Amuse iOS and Android digital distribution application was released in March 2017, allowing anyone to self-release and manage their music catalog straight from their smartphone. In June 2017, American rapper, singer, songwriter, DJ, record producer, voice actor and philanthropist

will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "will I am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is the frontman of the musical group Black Eyed Peas, which he ...

joined the company's list of co-founders. Later on in May 2018 Amuse raised $15,5M USD in series A funding round led by venture capital firms Lakestar and Raine Ventures. In April 2019 the company launched Fast Forward - an automated royalty advance service for self-releasing artists. In the end of 2018,

Lil Nas X Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), better known by his stage name Lil Nas X ( ), is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his 2018 country rap single "Old Town Road," the longest-running nu ...

uploaded his song

Old Town Road "Old Town Road" is the debut mainstream single by the American rapper and singer Lil Nas X, first released independently in December 2018. After gaining popularity, the single was re-released by Columbia Records in March 2019. He also recorded ...

through Amuse. According to former CEO Diego Farias, he had previously uploaded several tracks which had not gained much attention. However, in the beginning of 2019 the company could see, through their algorithms, that

was doing extremely well, and so they offered the artist a deal.

later on chose to sign a deal with

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. The song

, featuring

Billy Ray Cyrus William Ray Cyrus ( ; born August 25, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. Having released 16 studio albums and 53 singles since 1992, he is known for his hit single "Achy Breaky Heart", which topped the U.S. Hot Country Songs cha ...

, ended up becoming one of the most prized songs in the history of

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...

, as it spent record-breaking 19 weeks at No.1. By 2023, Amuse was a top 5 DIY digital music distribution services worldwide, in terms of release volume. They also had five of the ten most streamed songs on Spotify in Sweden and launched Music Insights, providing distribution users with granular statistics about their music performance, including user-generated content from YouTube and TikTok. "Master Your Music", a new AI release mastering service, was launched in July 2023 through a collaboration with the Norwegian startup Masterchannel, used by artists like

Ane Brun Ane Brun (; born Ane Brunvoll on 10 March 1976) is a Norwegian singer-songwriter and guitarist of Sami people, Sami origin who sings primarily in English. Since 2003, she has released eleven studio albums, six live albums, five compilations, o ...

and Skinny Days (producers for

Tiësto Tijs Michiel Verwest (; born 17 January 1969), known professionally as Tiësto ( , ), is a Dutch DJ and record producer. He was voted "The Greatest DJ of All Time" by ''Mix (magazine), Mix'' magazine in a 2010/2011 poll amongst fans. In 2013, h ...

Alan Walker Alan Olav Walker (born 24 August 1997) is a Norwegian DJ and record producer. His songs "Faded (Alan Walker song), Faded", "Sing Me to Sleep", "Alone (Alan Walker song), Alone", "All Falls Down (Alan Walker song), All Falls Down" (with Noah Cy ...

and

Seeb Al-Seeb, As Seeb, As Sib, or Seeb () is a coastal fishing province, located several kilometres northwest of Muscat, in northeastern Oman. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 470,878. Landmarks include the Naseem Garden, the Royal Stables ...

Operations

Amuse has two main operations - digital music distribution and licensing of music. Their offering stretches across a range of services for independent artists, from an open digital music distribution platform to artist services, marketing and funding. Amuse's label works with a selection of licensed artists, like US indie pop/rock acts

Yot Club John Ryan Kaiser, known professionally as Yot Club, is an American singer-songwriter and producer from Mississippi. He is best known for his single "YKWIM?", which was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in Novem ...

Emei Mount Emei (; zh, c=峨眉山, p=Éméi shān, O2-mei2 shan1), alternatively Mount Omei, is a mountain in Sichuan Province, China, and is the highest of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China. Mount Emei sits at the western rim of th ...

The Walters The Walters are an American indie pop band formed in 2014, from Chicago, Illinois, composed of lead vocalist Luke Olson, lead guitarist Walter Kosner, bassist Danny Wells, and drummer Charlie Ekhaus. They have released three EPs, one album, an ...

, Penelope Scott,

Stela Cole Hollyn Elizabeth Shadinger (born October 21, 1997), known professionally as Stela Cole is an American singer-songwriter. Her song “DIY” held the record for the most first week streams on American Song Contest where she reached the semi-final ...

Vundabar Vundabar is an American indie rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. The band consists of Brandon Hagen (vocals, guitar), Drew McDonald (drums, synthesizer), and Zack Abramo (bass). Vundabar is most well known for their song "Alien Blues", which w ...

, Hotel Ugly, Bedroom and Mind's Eye, UK Drill phenomena

Fumez the Engineer Jahrell Bryan (born 16 February 1993), commonly known as Fumez the Engineer, is a British rapper and audio engineer from London. Joining Pressplay Media - a UK rap platform - in 2012, he later moved to Link Up TV, where he would stay before movi ...

, Canadian rap/R&B artist 80purppp and Turkish chill trap artist Serhat Durmus. In early 2024, Amuse celebrated that Hotel Ugly and

had both surpassed 1 billion streams during their partnership with Amuse. The label has received a series of US, Canadian and UK Platinum certifications for licensed artists, as well as US, Canadian and UK Gold certifications. The data-driven royalty advance service Fast Forward that was officially launched in April 2019, utilises machine learning to calculate and offer users up to six months of their upcoming royalties through the Amuse smartphone application. The service is very scalable and able to offer artists advances between 10 USD up to thousands of USD.

Financials

Amuseio AB is based in Sweden and is required to release their financials. In 2023 they had a gross revenue of $24M USD and made $1.2M USD loss.

Associated artists

* 80purppp * Melvitto *

* Yasin *

Lil Tecca Tyler-Justin Anthony Sharpe (born August 26, 2002), known professionally as Lil Tecca, is an American rapper and singer-songwriter. Lil Tecca rose to mainstream prominence with the release of the 2019 single "Ransom", which peaked at number four ...

Kite A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have ...

* Asme *

Håkan Hellström Håkan Georg Hellström (; born 2 April 1974) is a Swedish musician. He made his breakthrough in Sweden in 2000 with the song "Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg" and the album with the same name. He has released eleven studio albums to date w ...

* 1.Cuz * Bedroom * Mind's Eye * Julie * Sad And Insane * Ryan Mack * Serhat Durmus * Sarettii * yuji * awfultune *

* Skinny Atlas * Shakka * Lil Chainz *

Georgia Ku Georgia Ku (born 20 February 1993) is an English singer and songwriter. She was a featured artist on the 2018 NOTD and Felix Jaehn hit single " So Close". The song has appeared on numerous charts including at number 11 on the ''Billboard'' Danc ...

* Albin Myers *

Fricky Carl Erik Friman, better known by his stage name Fricky (born 9 March 1992), is a Swedish rapper and musician. In 2018, he released his debut EP ''Aqua Aura'', which peaked at number five on the Swedish Albums Chart. The EP contained songs like ...

* Moonica Mac * Sean Slick

References

External links

* * * * * https://www.techcrunch.com/2018/05/22/amuse/ * * * * * https://www.feber.se/mobil/art/362391/ha_ditt_skivbolag_i_fickan/
Delivery Company
{{Authority control Music production companies Companies based in Stockholm Online music stores of Sweden Digital audio distributors Swedish companies established in 2015 Internet properties established in 2015 Entertainment companies established in 2015 Mass media companies established in 2015