Swedish music and tech company MAIA Universe – a sync licensing platform that simplifies the search and execution of licenses for creators of visual content, led by CEO David Wille – has announced it has closed a €1M investment round and welcomed new investors on board, with Max Martin being one of the significant backers.
In addition to this, the company has also signed significant licensing agreements with the following major rights holders: Sony Music Publishing UK, Sony Records UK, and Warner Chappell Music Publishing.
MAIA Universe has been backed by VC firm Zenith Ventures. Members of the Jochnick family have also invested alongside Aligned, Wildfire, FWB, HDR Partners, and the founders of SeenThis AB. The MAIA Universe team says it is also “delighted” to welcome legendary Swedish writer-producer Max Martin as an investor via his company MxM.
In a statement, MxM said: “MxM fully support MAIA in their mission to democratise sync and deliver opportunities and value to songwriters and artists of all genres and sizes.”
In parallel to welcoming these investors on board, the company has now licensed catalogue sync rights from Sony Music Publishing UK, Sony Records UK, and Warner Chappell Music Publishing.
MAIA Universe says this will, in turn, allow them to “rapidly and significantly increase the number of licensable songs on the platform and continue to grow its licensed music catalogue on an ongoing basis.”
MxM fully support MAIA in their mission to democratise sync and deliver opportunities and value to songwriters and artists of all genres and sizes
MxM
Speaking on behalf of Sony Music Publishing, Chris Jones, VP licensing, Sony Music Publishing UK said: “Sony Music Publishing is supporting MAIA Universe by sharing and making available a selection of fantastic songs from our extensive catalogue. We are excited by the potential to capture increased sync opportunities in the UK for all of our songwriters.”
Andrew Howell VP of sync, Warner Chappell added: “Warner Chappell Publishing see the potential for MAIA Universe to deliver additional sync revenue and exposure for our songwriters. MAIA is a well designed and thought through tech solution for the sync community’s pain point”.
Melinda Baikoglu, head of music publishing, Playground Music Scandinavia, concluded: “Playground Music supports MAIA Universe in its efforts to simplify the licensing process in our industry. This will be a great complement to our own process and also strengthen our ability to offer the best possible service to our brand partners worldwide”.
David Wille, CEO and co-founder MAIA Universe, said: "MAIA Universe is transforming the sync industry by addressing the exponential growth in demand for sync licences. This increase has been driven by a surge in content creation across new and emerging media channels. Directors, film makers, advertisers, branded content creators, games studios and TV producers all aspire to find and licence commercially released music quickly and efficiently."
