QUICK HITS: Hook seed round tops $3.5M • Pex modified audio study • Horus adds publishing

Hook, the legal music remix platform for fan use on social media, has extended its Seed Round to include investments from Natalie Massenet, Nick Brown’s Imaginary Ventures, and others.

This additional investment brings the total of Hook’s Seed round, led by Point72 Ventures and Edgar Bronfman Jr.’s Waverley Capital, to $3.5 Million.

Hook also announced the initial members of its advisory board including DJ and producer KSHMR; SNAP Head of Music Partnerships Manny Adler; venture capitalist Abe Burns; Downtown Music Holdings Founder & Chairman Justin Kalifowitz; Hundred Days Founder & Co-president Ben Klein; Reed Smith LLP Managing Partner Gregor Pryor, and others.

• A new report from Pex shows that TikTok has the most modified audio of the four largest social media platforms. It was one of the few platforms to see an increase from 2022, with 38.03% of songs found on TikTok being speed or pitch-modified in 2023. 

An estimated 19% of all identified content in 2023 contained modified audio. 

Why does modified audio matter? Modified audio remixes often divert royalty payments away from rightsholders and into the hands of other creators.

• Horus Music has officially launched Horus Music Publishing, a new music publishing administrative service open to any songwriter or publishing rights holder. It enables users to handle their distribution and publishing needs right within their bespoke ‘My Client Zone’ technology.

Their new custom platform ‘My Music Publishing Zone’ has allowed Horus Music Publishing to form direct partnerships with key PRO’s globally, meaning more efficient administration of artist and songwriters’ music publishing rights.

Bruce Houghton