Audoo is changing how the music industry approaches royalty payments – and founder Ryan Edwards says this mission remains his core focus.
Edwards founded the business in 2018 to provide a solution to the challenges faced in public performance royalty data collection and payment distribution via its Audoo Audio Meter device and insights platform.
So impressive is the growth of the London firm – which counts legends including Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney and ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus among its investors – that it has topped our last two MediaTech 50 rankings.
However, despite substantial interest, he says they “do not have an exit strategy for the time being”.
“And that’s quite intentional,” he adds. “Audoo is a mission-led business and we’re focused on long-term impact rather than a quick exit.
“Of course, we’re consistently approached, and we explore every conversation, just as we do with funding. But the reality is we love working on this company.
“We get to spend time with our heroes, solve a problem that’s affected creators for generations, and genuinely change how the industry works. That’s what motivates us, not an exit timeline.”
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As a child the entrepreneur would practise drumming along to songs from famous bands in his bedroom. Later, as part of The Lines, he would find himself opening for these heroes – including The Killers, The Charlatans, Jack Peñate and Supergrass.
After The Lines, Edwards focused his career on technology and data, leading teams in creating mobile apps for world football governing body FIFA, B&Q and Barclays; rolling out complex retail data solutions at Visa; and bringing Best Buy to the UK.
In 2018 he was shopping in a department store when he heard his former band’s song Domino Effect playing over the speakers – and wondered whether they were being paid royalties they were due. The idea for Audoo was born.
Its Audio Meter – which Edwards says remains true to the original vision sketched out sitting at his kitchen table – has been specifically designed to cut through environmental noise and recognise the music played within commercial premises.
It has now been rolled out around the world.
“Commercially, we’ve expanded major partnerships with APRA in Australia and New Zealand, IMRO in Ireland, and BUMA in the Netherlands [in the last 12 months],” Edwards says.
“All of those organisations are seeing the positive impact of real-world monitoring and are increasing their deployment of Audio Meters. We’ve also entered the US market, which is a huge step for us.
“My own role has become incredibly global. I’m rarely in the UK now because there are so many PROs (performing rights organisations) and industry bodies around the world that want to meet and understand how this technology can finally bring accuracy to royalty distributions.”
However, the UK has been slower on the uptake than other countries.
“What we’ve learned is that some markets are true trailblazers. Organisations like APRA and IMRO are deeply committed to accuracy and doing the best for their members, and they’ve embraced technology as the way to achieve that,” says Edwards.
“Unfortunately, in our home market we haven’t seen the same level of commitment. That led us to launch Every Play Counts, our direct-to-venue strategy where we provide Audio Meters at no cost to venues.
“Rather than waiting for change, we decided to empower businesses to be part of the solution themselves – and we’ve seen a hugely positive response from venue owners and managers.
“What’s been fascinating is how that has opened up a completely new customer base. Labels, publishers and managers now want access to this data to understand where their music is actually being played in the real world.
“That insight simply hasn’t existed before, so Audoo is creating a new layer of intelligence for the entire ecosystem.”
Edwards says the huge and fragmented US market is a “very different landscape to anywhere else”.
“There are multiple rights organisations, artists move between them, and the market has gone through significant structural change – including one organisation moving from a not-for-profit model to a private-equity-backed business,” he explains.
“That creates new behaviours and new incentives, but what we’re already seeing from the first cities we’ve launched in is incredibly clear: real-world public performance data looks nothing like streaming, radio or playlist proxies.
“That reinforces why Audoo exists. The industry has been relying on approximations for decades, and the US is proving just as strongly as Europe and Australia that those approximations don’t reflect reality.”
Over the last couple of years, Audoo has moved from being a promising technology into something genuinely transformational for the music industry, Edwards says.
“We delivered the world’s first live music monitoring at festivals, which was a huge technical milestone and proved that our Audio Meter can work in even the most complex, high-volume environments.
“We also launched Audoo Recap, which for the first time gives venues meaningful data back about the music they play. That has completely changed the dynamic between venues and PROs – it turns licensing from a cost into a relationship built on transparency and value.”
As for what’s coming next, he says Audoo is in advanced conversations with several new markets that weren’t even on its original roadmap.
“The wider ambition hasn’t changed: we want Audoo to become the global standard for how public performance music is measured and how royalties are distributed.
“Every additional meter, venue and territory takes us closer to a world where creators are paid based on real data rather than estimates.”
Edwards says there hasn’t been a week in the last five years where he hasn’t met someone to discuss ideas, partnerships or the future of the business.
“We’re a technology company with big global ambitions, so we’re always exploring options around funding,” he continues.
“That said, we don’t currently have an official round open. We’re focused on execution and growth, and we’ll look at the right partners at the right time rather than raising capital for the sake of it.”