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Music can create an out-of-world experience transforming the landscape for video gamers. Tech startup AudioMob was created on this principle and allows advertisers to monetize their content through audio ads so gamers can play freely without interruptions. “For the past two years, we have been focused on listening to our clients, gathering feedback, and improving our audio technology and products. We understand that consumers don’t want to be interrupted, advertisers want their ads to be heard and game developers want to ensure monetization does not affect retention. And now we have built products which meet all three needs,” Founder Wilfrid Obeng said, according to EU-Startups.com. AudioMob — founded by Obeng and Christian Facey — has now raised $14 million in a Series A funding round, TechCrunch reports. The round was led by global venture capital firm Makers Fund and multi-stage capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners. Sequoia Scout Program, Google and more also participated in...
Spotify will soon host live audio conversations following its acquisition of Betty Labs, creators of the Locker Room app. Spotify shared the news in a press release, stating that this deal builds on its plans to create the “future formats of audio” and make its own original live audio content. Spotify will spend the next few months expanding the Locker Room app to offer more enhanced live audio experiences to attract more creators and fans. “Creators and fans have been asking for live formats on Spotify, and we’re excited that soon, we’ll make them available to hundreds of millions of listeners and millions of creators on our platform,” Spotify Chief Research and Development Officer Gustav Söderström said in a statement. “The world already turns to us for music, podcasts, and other unique audio experiences, and this new live audio experience is a powerful complement that will enhance and extend the on-demand experience we provide today.” Founded by Howard Akumiah in 2018, Betty Labs...
This week’s episode of the Black Tech Green Money podcast is bound to inspire you to do work that leaves a mark on others. Host Will Lucas is joined by the master of content curation, Tuma Basa , to discuss his current role as Director of Urban Music at YouTube, how to build credibility and leverage in the music industry, and what it means to really create work that leaves an imprint on the culture. Photo via Johnny Nunez | @tumabasa Instagram Tuma Basa has a long history of creating content for hip hop culture. After working at BET and spending nearly 10 years at MTV, he joined Diddy’s REVOLT TV as VP of Music Programming. He then joined Spotify as the company’s Global Programming Head of Hip-Hop, becoming the mastermind behind the streaming service’s Rap Caviar playlist as well as several playlists focusing on Black and African music. After 5 years at Spotify, Tuma has now landed at YouTube. Tuma’s passion can be heard throughout the podcast as he stresses the importance of...
The utilization of technology in everyday life isn’t new and neither are its advancements. That rings even more true in the music industry. Acclimating to new advancements of software and hardware can produce challenges in both the learning and creative process, and on this episode of the Black Tech Green Money podcast with Will Lucas, Grammy award-winning, multi-platinum producer, Bryan Michael Cox discusses adjusting to a world that has technology advancing the art of production nearly every week. @bryanmichaelcox Instagram Bryan Michael Cox has done extensive work with the likes of Usher, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, and Toni Braxton but n o one is immune to adjusting with the times — not even Bryan. “The shift from Logic to Ableton was a hard shift because I was in the middle of projects,” he says. “So learning Ableton in the midst of making an Usher album, a Monica album…was difficult because I couldn’t adjust in the middle of projects.” In episode 2 of the Black Tech Green...
In this day and age of entrepreneurship, seldom do we have voices or representatives that truly encompass building within our communities and providing structure for the next generation to do so. On the inaugural episode of the Black Tech Green Money podcast hosted by Will Lucas, founder and CEO of Blavity Inc., Morgan DeBaun, offers her perspective on having a majority-Black workforce and how, as a people, we should strive to achieve a similar goal within our own startups and businesses. @morgandebaun Instagram In 2014, Morgan DeBaun along with Aaron Samuels and Jeff Nelson founded Blavity Inc. as their solution to the lack of Black millennial representation in media. Under the Blavity Inc. umbrella are the online publications Blavity.com, Shadow & Act, Travel Noire, 21Ninety, and AfroTech. Blavity also launched the AfroTech conference which serves as the largest Black tech conference in the country. “I need people around us, around our mission, around my employees, around my...
