{"id":98212,"date":"2021-01-20T21:14:16","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T21:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?post_type=companies&p=98212"},"modified":"2021-01-20T21:14:16","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T21:14:16","slug":"instrumental","status":"publish","type":"companies","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/companies\/instrumental\/","title":{"rendered":"Instrumental"},"content":{"rendered":"

Instrumental is an A&R scouting platform and record label owner headquartered in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

The company was founded by former Warner Music Group executive Conrad Withey alongside Abi Hanna in 2016.<\/p>\n

Instrumental\u2019s main app uses data science and AI \u2013 crunching information from various streaming platforms \u2013 to discover and evaluate the potential of independent artists.<\/p>\n

This service has been used by companies including\u00a0all three major labels<\/a> plus, Live Nation and Paradigm.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Instrumental launched its internal record label<\/a>, Frtyfve, which enables it to invest early in emerging artists spotted by its own technology.<\/p>\n

\n
Investment in Instrumental<\/h6>\n

Warner Music Group acquired a stake<\/a> in Instrumental in 2015 shortly before the latter company’s public launch.<\/p>\n

In March 2018, Instrumental confirmed that London-based digital venture builder, Blenheim Chalcot, had led a \u00a33 million ($4 million) investment round into Instrumental.<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition to Blenheim Chalcot, the $4 million round included investment from music industry veteran Bill Roedy (ex-CEO of MTV International).<\/p>\n

In October 2020, Instrumental confirmed<\/a> that Tencent Holdings and Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) had jointly acquired a minority stake in the company.<\/p>\n

At the time, Conrad Withey said: “Like us, Tencent have identified the power and potential of data science in the discovery and development of high potential new artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am looking forward greatly to collaborating with Tencent and TME, including the opportunity to expand our business into China. This deal will allow Instrumental to accelerate our commitment to becoming an ‘artist first’ business, delivering insights and partnerships directly to the great talent discovered by our app.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Instrumental is an A&R platform that sold a minority stake in its business to Tencent in 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":37421,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-98212","companies","type-companies","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/companies\/98212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/companies"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/companies"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/companies\/98212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}