Conference Conversations: Inside the Yamaha Music Innovation Fund

This week on Music Tectonics, we're doing something different. We're kicking off a series of highlights from the Music Tectonics Conference that wrapped up just a couple of weeks ago. Over the next several weeks, we'll be sharing our favorite discussions, interviews, and panels that capture what's happening right now in music innovation.

We start with a conversation recorded at the Shure podcast booth with Andrew Kahn and Conor Healy from the Yamaha Music Innovation Fund. Andrew and Conor share how Yamaha is investing in music tech startups, what they look for in founders, and why solving real problems for creators matters more than chasing AI trends or other hype cycles.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How Yamaha's Innovation Fund is expanding beyond traditional musicians to support all creator types

• What makes a music tech startup fundable in today's market

• Why streaming infrastructure and creator economy businesses still offer opportunities

• The importance of building new revenue streams for creators

• What investors learn from startup speed dating sessions

Whether you're a music tech founder looking for funding or just curious about where the industry is headed, this conversation offers valuable insights into what investors are actually looking for.

The news! 

• AI Is Sure to Transform the Music Biz. Opinions Vary on Exactly How.

• As AI Artists Breaking Rust & Cain Walker Rule a Country Chart, Nashville Execs Weigh in: ‘It’s Incredibly Detrimental’

• Spotify and NMPA strike a deal… on ‘audiovisual opportunities’

• Music Videos Are Coming to Spotify in the U.S. and Canada

Listen wherever you pod your casts:

Looking for Rock Paper Scanner, the newsletter of music tech news curated by the Rock Paper Scissors PR team? Subscribe here to get it in your inbox every Friday!

Episode Transcript

Machine transcribed

11/19- Yamaha: Andrew + Connor

[00:00:00] Dmitri: Awesome. Well, it's great to have you guys here. I've got Andrew Kahn and Conor Healy with the Yamaha Music Innovation Fund. Thanks for coming out to Music. Tectonics,

[00:00:08] Conor: pumped, pumped to jump in that pool.

[00:00:10] Dmitri: Yeah, there's a pool right over there. Hey, there's a pool over there.

 okay, we're gonna do that now.

We'll be back. Okay, well, cool. Like we've got a, great day of things that we plan together tomorrow, but we're here on the morning of the second day of music tectonics. And, uh, I thought maybe if folks haven't heard yet about Yamaha Music Innovation Fund, how do you describe it? why did you start it?

What are you doing,

[00:00:29] Andrew: man, that's a mouthful.

Uh, yeah. I look, the Innovation Fund is focused on investing in, you know, early stage founders building. Technology that we think will change how cultures created and consumed. From Yamaha's perspective, a company that's played a role in the lives of creative people for 130 years, they want to increase the role that they play in the lives of creative people.

They wanna expand the role that they, they're playing.

[00:00:56] Dmitri: Love that.

[00:00:56] Andrew: And so investing in startups and talented, and intrepid founders is, a tentpole of the strategy going forward. Yeah. So Connor and I are lucky enough to, you know, be out there representing. Yamaha with this fund and meeting all kinds of talented people around the world who are building really innovative, uh, technology.

[00:01:14] Conor: Yep. And I would say, you know, for Yamaha, the core focus is always gonna be the musician, but part of the motivation of this fund is to extend out to other creator types as well. So I think. The archetypal company for us is maybe one where music is the beachhead and there's a business to be built there, but it can extend out to other creator categories as

[00:01:34] Dmitri: well.

Yeah, that's gonna be interesting to see. And it's something I hear from a lot of, uh, investors in this space too. They're interested in music. Everyone loves the culture of music. People are very connected to the identity of music, but there's so many ways in which people are interacting with media and entertainment that's broader.

It's really interesting to watch that sort of like, expansion across within music and also next to music. I mean, music is a soundtrack for so many things, but then there's the whole lean back, lean in experience, you know, and, and figuring all that. And, and the way that, new generations are emerging in terms of what their expectations are about how they're interacting with entertainment or media or each other are changing.

 I'm curious from your perspective, what are the seismic shifts that music tech founders, And people in the creative space should be thinking about as, say, look at what people wanna invest in and where those generational shifts are happening.

[00:02:25] Andrew: I think, there's a, there's a lot to unpack there. Yeah.

Um, I mean, look, the emerge, I, I, I won't say AI 'cause that's the easy answer, but of course that's a, you know, a fundamental. Technological shift that's, unlocking new types of creativity and allowing new people to play, to explore their creativity and honestly potentially create, you know, new classes of creators, which I think is most interesting, which is, you know, from the companies that we look at, when we think about the.

Role they play in, the lives of creative people is like, are you unlocking a new type of creative class? Are you giving people a way to make money, you know, that is, um, like where they couldn't before because of your platform or your technology? Those are from a thematic. When Connor and I talk about the companies after, I think that's one, big theme that we look for, which is empowering people to make a living from.

New type of creativity.

[00:03:19] Conor: Yep. I think it's well said. I think, look, everything we do can be distilled into two buckets, right? Are you solving a problem for creators or are you creating a new revenue stream? Sometimes those coalesce into like the ultimate bucket, which is great, but it doesn't have to be ai, like, you know, two of the companies that we're potentially closing an investment in, one's in streaming infrastructure, right?

Which. That was probably a sexy category 15 years ago, but is kind of overlooked by industry agnostic VCs. But that doesn't mean that there aren't great founders and great businesses being built in that category, right? Or creator economy. That's kind of a stigmatized, sub-sector today, right? Because maybe there were some larger companies that were funded by larger mega funds that maybe didn't go well, but again.

There are still great founders and great businesses being built in those categories, uh, and those two companies don't really touch AI at all. So I don't think, like, with these big seismic shifts, if you're not necessarily building in, it doesn't mean that you can't build a great company.

[00:04:21] Dmitri: Awesome.

Andrew, you've been to Music Tectonics before.

What happens at these things that gets you excited? What, what if, what have you seen happen at Tectonics in the past?

[00:04:34] Andrew: Uh, I've been coming for four years. You know it from an investor perspective, you gotta be present and, um, you know, you wanna be places where interesting people come together.

They may be founders, they may be people who know founders. They may be, you know, corporates. I mean, all those people come here. You don't know who you're gonna meet. And each introduction is a new opportunity. That's how I look at it. and I just think this is one of those places where a lot of interesting people come together and, uh, you know, I've always enjoyed it.

So, the, content's great. The people are great. And you know, this year obviously we're playing a more active role with, Yamaha.

[00:05:08] Dmitri: Yeah. Let's talk about tomorrow. 'cause we have Yamaha's Startup Day that we partnered with on Music Tectonics. What's the goal there? What are we doing there?

Just, just a little mention of, uh, what we got planned.

[00:05:18] Andrew: yeah. Well, uh. All day at Expert Dojo, in Santa Monica. We will start off with, some investor networking close to the public. Um, and then, uh, speed dating with founders, which is always super fun. I did that last year as a participant, not a sponsor, which is a great way to get to know founders here.

Quick pitches, give them feedback. It's a great exercise as an investor to think on your feet. But yeah, you moves fast. Yeah. And you, but you get to put founders to the test, right? You, you found out, you find out a lot really quickly. And I met some really talented people last year and then, uh, in the afternoon we've got some interesting programming.

We have an interview with a chief product officer at Splice. the whole afternoon will be focused around, you know, building defensible businesses. Kind of in the AI age. Um, each panel has a different title, but we'll start off with the interview with the Chief Product Officer at Splice. We'll follow that with, um, a panel, that I'll be moderating with three other really talented investors who invest, in.

Kinda the creator economy, uh, in consumer technology. And then Connor's gonna be leading a panel, uh, with three really talented founders, that we've had, longstanding relationships with, who are building what we think are pretty transformative businesses at the intersection of media, music, and technology.

[00:06:31] Dmitri: Yeah, I think people get a view into how you guys are thinking just by seeing who those founders are that you bring in. 'cause. There's some synergy there,

[00:06:38] Conor: yeah. The interesting thing about those founders, Tim mean they're very talented individuals. Their companies are very interesting companies, but all three of them have raised from more industry agnostic VCs, which I think is really encouraging because Silicon Valley starting to lean more into the music tech scene.

[00:06:55] Dmitri: Yeah. Awesome. Great. Well, it's so great to be partnering with you guys on Music Tectonics this year. Thanks for taking the time this morning to talk, and

I hope you have an amazing

tectonics.

[00:07:02] Conor: Thanks, Dimitri.

[00:07:02] Andrew: Awesome.

Let us know what you think! Tweet @MusicTectonics, find us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, or connect with podcast host Dmitri Vietze on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

The Music Tectonics podcast goes beneath the surface of the music industry to explore how technology is changing the way business gets done. Weekly episodes include interviews with music tech movers & shakers, deep dives into seismic shifts, and more.