- The team consists of producers and songwriters with over 2 billion streams for artists like Selena Gomez, G-Eazy, Saweetie, Dua Lipa, and Demi Lovato.
- Having worked with Sony Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, Nike, and Google, Hume's founding team is redefining what it means to be an artist and a fan
- Hume's web3 approach blends music, digital identity, and storytelling to develop virtual artists known as ”metastars” who exist equally in the digital and physical world
- Hume's first metastar, angelbaby, has performed live at Art Basel, Fluf Haus LA, and SXSW, in addition to having multiple #1 songs on web3 streaming platform Audius and 2 #1 trending Music NFTs on OpenSea
Hume, a web3 entertainment company pioneering music in the metaverse, announced a $11.7M Series A funding round led by TCG Crypto, with participation from Collab+Currency, Winklevoss Capital, Gemini Frontier Fund, Gmoney, Flamingo DAO, Noise DAO, LAO DAO, Distributed Global, Rahilla Zafar, Evan Bogart, and Cooper Turley.
The new raise will be used to establish a growing roster of virtual metastar artists, build a fan to “metastar” engagement platform, expand the company's engineering, creative, music business and marketing teams and scale its vision to redefine what it means to be an artist and fan today.
“The web3 music space isn't just introducing new monetization models, it's introducing entirely new genres and experiences. Through this, fans will become more deeply connected with their favorite artists and the moments that propel that passion,” says Jarrod Dicker, partner at TCG Crypto. “We believe that Hume's approach will be the driving force in this next evolution of the music business.”
Meet the Metastars of the Metaverse
The next big landmine in the metaverse is music, and it needs artists the same way our physical world does. Hume is bringing fans to the forefront of artist creation, development, and engagement, and it offers both a web3 label and an in-house entertainment studio for their fully developed metastars. What's a metastar? A metaverse-native, virtual music artist who blurs the lines between the digital and physical worlds.
Hume's metastars are developed fully in-house, with a team backing them for success, including writers, producers, storytellers, animators, promoters, publicists, and vocalists. In 2021, Hume debuted the world's first metastar. Chart-topping, web3 artist and Fluf World star angelbaby, is Hume's first of many and represents an entirely new type of virtual artist made for the metaverse. Earlier this year angelbaby released their first single, “NFT,” and performed at Art Basel, FLUF Haus LA, and SXSW. Angelbaby's NFTs and music have risen to #1 position on OpenSea, web3 streaming platform Audius and Flufworld's scene and sound collection.
“Through new business models and incentive mechanisms, the web3 music space has made huge strides in redefining what it means to be a fan. But we believe Hume is doing something entirely different: redefining what it means to be an artist, too,” says Gaby Goldberg, Investor at TCG Crypto.
At Hume, fans gain direct access into an artist's music curation process while being fully immersed in a deep Marvel-esque narrative. This will all take place in their soon-to-launch platform, “The Spot,” and is made possible through the Hume Genesis NFT, which gives fans rights to actively influence the metastars' decisions by voting on single releases, merch, and more. It marks a first-of-its-kind moment where music NFTs are being used to access new fan experiences.
“The Hume Collective is at the cutting edge of web3 music. Metastars are the future, and Hume has grown an incredible community with sensible economics in mind,” says Cooper Turley, General Partner at Coop Records.
“Today's record labels are not inherently built for web3, and the industry is filled with bureaucracy and politics that often limit the connection between artists and fans,” said Hume co-founder and CEO David Beiner. “We created Hume to build a world of metaverse native virtual artists and create a platform that harnesses NFTs in a way that redefines the fan-to-artist relationship.”
“In the 60's, The Beatles changed music and entertainment with multi-track recordings. In the 90's, Toy Story brought tears to our eyes through 3D animation for the first time. Metastars open up new possibilities for imagination, music, and storytelling that weren't possible before,” says Jay Stolar, Chief Artist Officer and co-founder of Hume. “At Hume, we are not only defining what it means to be a metastar, but also how a team of artists across different mediums work together to develop new creative processes for the next generation of artists.”
Hume recently dropped its first NFT collection, the Hume Genesis, which is available to OpenSea. With a supply of only 1035 tokens split across three tiers of rarity, the NFTs give holders different levels of power to influence the lives and music of future metastars. In the past, early access to music and deciding on a single release was relegated to label executives. With Hume, Hume Genesis holders can become part of the process.
“It's never been more important to embrace the fact that virtual artists, Web3, and music NFTs are the future,“ said multi-platinum singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc. ”Hume unlocks the potential of community-fueled innovation and creativity and will help usher in a new era of music and entertainment.”
To learn more about Hume Genesis NFTs, visit wearehume.com/genesis
To listen to angelbaby, go to: audius.co/angelbaby
About Hume:
Hume is a Web3 entertainment company for the Metaverse. Hume's community-building approach blends music, digital identity, and storytelling to develop virtual artists, or ”metastars”, who are as inspired by us as we are by them. The company is co-founded by David Beiner and Jay Stolar and is based in Los Angeles with a global team of employees across Brazil, California, France and Argentina. To learn more, visit wearehume.com.
About TCG
Founded by Peter Chernin, Jesse Jacobs, and Mike Kerns, The Chernin Group (TCG) is a multi-stage investment firm dedicated to building consumer businesses. With a focus on majority and significant minority investments in growing consumer businesses, the TCG team has a track record of working with world-class consumer brands in digital media, commerce, marketplaces, sports, gaming, consumer finance, consumer blockchain and heal and wellness brands and platforms. The TCG portfolio includes Action Network, Barstool Sports, Dapper Labs, Exploding Kittens, Food52, Funko, Headspace, Hodinkee, MeatEater, The Pro's Closet, and Zed Run and more. For more information visit tcg.co
About TCG Crypto
TCG Crypto is an early stage fund investing at the intersection of consumer and crypto. The TCG Crypto portfolio includes Rabbithole, Hume, Flamingo DAO, Arkive, Medallion, Altered State Machine, Draup, Tribute Brand and more.
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