Michael Nash, chief digital officer of Universal Music Group, may be stating the obvious when he observes how “streaming has been the most significant technology advancement in music in many years.”
But what less Canadians are aware of is how the technology has become saturated with “fraud fuelled by a flood of uploads with no meaningful engagement, including non-artist noise content.”
Nash, who also functions as executive vice president for UMG, believes this plague of noise “has necessitated a more sophisticated, coordinated, proactive approach to mitigating streaming fraud, to foster a thriving music ecosystem.”
“We must ensure we are supporting legitimate artistry,” he says, “and deterring those who seek to abuse the open, global music industry.”
With this target in their bull’s eye, Vancouver’s Beatdapp Software recently raised a sizeable round of funding, the company has revealed.
Founded in 2018 by Morgan Hayduk and Andrew Batey, Beatdapp is a fraud detection company focused on the music industry.
“Our mission at Beatdapp is to protect the economic wellbeing of the global music streaming industry and put an end to streaming fraud,” explain Batey and Hayduk, who share the role of chief executive. “As a neutral third party, Beatdapp is the impartial provider of objective analysis that our growing roster of clients can count on to get fraud detection.”
Beatdapp’s technology combats streaming fraud for five core categories of customers: Digital service providers, music labels, collection societies, creator tool services, and music distributors. Claiming a false positive rate below 0.001%, Beatdapp ensures legitimate artists are protected while fraud is eliminated.
Alongside new partnerships with SoundExchange, Napster, and Universal Music Group, the BC-born tech firm this month announced that it has secured US$17 million in financing.
“This new funding allows us to deploy the most sophisticated fraud detection models, built on an industry leading data set, and further enhances our reach to meet growing market demand for our capabilities across all corners of the globe,” Batey stated.
In 2023, Beatdapp analyzed more than two trillion streams and twenty trillion data points, according to a statement from the company, which said that the financing will be “strategically invested in hiring senior leaders, expanding the data science and technical teams, and entering new markets including Asia, India, and Europe.”
Two investors in the round, Larry Fichtner and Jamie King, will join the startup’s board.
“We’re very pleased to welcome Larry Fichtner and Jamie King as investors and to our board,” Hayduk said.
“Jamie’s experience building a category defining, multi-billion-dollar fraud detection business is invaluable as we grow our network of partners and take our company to the next level,” the co-CEO added.
Streaming fraud impacts every corner of the global music industry, Nash noted. Beatdapp says it is working with partners like UMG to foster a music ecosystem where creators are compensated fairly while fans enjoy the best streaming experience.
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