Former Spotify Innovation Head Launches AI-Free Music App Label with $5.5M Pre-Seed

Máuhan M Zonoozy, the former head of innovation at Spotify, has launched A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya, a music software label designed to return human taste to the center of music creation. The startup has secured $5.5 million in pre-seed funding to develop a suite of interactive apps that prioritize active participation over AI-generated content.

The funding round saw participation from a broad group of investors, including Mantis VC, SV Angel, Boxgroup, Quiet Capital, ERA, Common Metal, Gold House, Liquid 2 Ventures, Breakers VC, Systemic Ventures, and Dawn Ostroff. Rather than building a single platform, the company operates as a "music software label," releasing small, experimental applications that it refers to as "singles." These include the Chrome extension Speed Surfer, as well as tools named Usersound, Stacks, Drops, and Sampler. The company's flagship offering is an iOS app called "bop," which provides a grid interface where users can place instruments and effects to remix base songs for export to social platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

A Counter-Movement to Generative AI

This launch comes as the music industry is flooded by generative AI tools that allow users to create full songs via simple text prompts. A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya is positioning itself as a strategic counter-movement to this trend. Zonoozy argues that as AI makes content more abundant and effortless to produce, the value of human perspective and active taste will increase.

Zonoozy, who also founded Bubbl, believes the future of music is not simply about automated generation. "AI is obviously extraordinarily powerful, but I think we just don’t necessarily believe that the future of music is simply generation, like song generation via AI," Zonoozy said. He noted that younger audiences are already accustomed to playing with culture through gaming and interactive filters, creating a natural opportunity to empower them to do the same with sound.

From Passive Consumption to Active Play

The shift represents a fundamental pivot from the streaming era's model of passive consumption to a model where music is treated as a "verb" or a participatory activity. By removing the AI prompt from the user experience, the company is betting that the next generation of fans will prefer tools that allow them to play with music rather than tools that simply generate it for them.

What's Next

Looking ahead, the company aims to expand its toolkit for creators. A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya plans to release a "musical sandbox mixer" product later this year, which would allow users to create their own custom instruments. This move would further the company's goal of moving music from the background of the user experience into the foreground.