The Music Fund, a venture originated by global investment management and data science company Winton, will seek to give artists the opportunity to fund their next record, tour or PR campaign. It aims to make musicians a fair and transparent offer for just a portion of their future royalties, allowing them to retain control.

The Music Fund would do this by analyzing data to smooth out the lumpiness of actual future payments. Investors in The Music Fund, meanwhile, would receive cashflows from those royalties. Forbes has said that “the draw for investors and marketplace operators is clear.”

John Funge, Chief Executive Officer at The Music Fund, said: “A lot of great music never gets made because artists run out of money. We will offer to buy a portion of artists’ existing rights, so they can invest in their careers while maintaining control. In return for their capital, our investors would receive music royalties as a revenue stream that has previously been uncorrelated with financial market assets.”

Thomas Jerde, Chief Technology Officer at The Music Fund, said: “Traditionally, music has been a realm of privileged gatekeepers making decisions based on gut instinct, "golden ears", favoritism and chance. Now, there are opportunities for data-driven insight and discovery to level the playing field and give artists a fairer opportunity to develop to their full potential.”

The Music Fund’s CEO John Funge and CTO Thomas Jerde are former colleagues at Winton, with a combined 30 years’ experience in data science, artificial intelligence and the wider tech sector.

John, who spent two and half years as a director of engineering at Netflix, has previously co-founded two companies. He and Thomas met while working at one of those, Knack.it, a start-up app developer using gamification to help companies improve their recruitment, talent development and decision-making.

The Music Fund is based in the San Francisco office of Winton, which retains an equity stake in the business.

Media Contact: John Funge