Can this entrepreneur unlock $40 billion in new revenue for the music business?

Music Business Worldwide

Welcome to the Music Business Worldwide Podcast supported by Voly Music.
On this episode, MBW founder Tim Ingham speaks to Ola Sars, founder and CEO of Soundtrack Your Brand.
A graduate of Harvard Business School, Sars went on to become the co-founder and COO of Beats Music – the music subscription streaming service, associated with Beats By Dre headphones, that would become Apple Music.
In 2013, Sars launched Soundtrack Your Brand (then called Spotify For Business) as a JV with Spotify. The premise is simple: a music streaming service specifically made for businesses – whether multi-nationals or mom'n'pop shops.
In 2018, Sars spun the company out of that ownership structure as the independent Soundtrack Your Brand (although Spotify remains a minority investor today).
One of his key arguments: any business playing music from an individual's Spotify account is breaking the terms and conditions of their agreement with the service.
Said businesses, according to Sars, should be paying a premium monthly fee for a streaming service that clears them to play music for their customers (and which, ideally, also recommends music designed to draw more purchase activity from consumers).
Sars calculates there are 100 million different types of public-facing businesses globally that are a target market for this kind of B2B music streaming service.
Between them, he says, they could bring in an additional $40 billion of revenue into the music industry.
Right now, Sars is some way from that kind of target: In 2022, Soundtrack Your Brand turned over 214 million SEK, which works out at just over $20 million US dollars.
However, that revenue wasn’t far away from doubling year-on-year – up 61% on 2021.
As you read this, Soundtrack Your Brand has just over 54,000 paying monthly subscribers globally.
Sars says there's much more to come...

Music Business Worldwide's Podcasts are supported by Voly Entertainment (previously known as Voly Music).