Danny Newcomb isn’t really interested in using AI to make music. But the longtime Seattle musician is interested in the power of the technology to help independent musicians succeed in certain aspects of the business.
Newcomb is the founder of Incantio, a startup launching this week as a two-sided marketplace, where artists can self license, set pricing and manage the rights to music that can be used in ads, television and film. The platform also allows creators to more easily search for and discover music for projects they are working on.
“Half of the global music market is now independent,” Newcomb said. “And those artists don’t have access to self-license into a catalog where they can price and manage their own rights.”
Newcomb said the space is traditionally dominated by large companies that buy music outright, depriving artists of performance royalties. In contrast, Incantio allows musicians to retain their rights and earn backend royalties, while offering content creators an easy way to license music at various price tiers.
Newcomb, who has played in Seattle bands including Shadow, Goodness, The Rockfords and Sugarmakers, started working on Incantio two years ago. The five-person company raised a pre-seed round of $350,000, led by Northwest Angel, and expects to generate revenue this month. A seed round is planned to follow.
He called Seattle a music town, but said it’s not a “music publishing town,” and generating funding interest for a venture like his takes a bit longer.
Newcomb also said he came up through a music system that doesn’t really exist anymore for independent artists. The industry is increasingly dominated by streaming giants. Physical product is no longer a viable way for labels to generate income, but “there’s no money in that” for artists, Newcomb said of streaming.
“Part of this, for me, is a way of creating an open platform where artists can set the value of their digital rights for licensing and gain some of that value back,” he said.
Newcomb calls AI an “efficiency tool” to help creators search a very large catalog quickly. Picture a filmmaker working with a Rolling Stones song as a placeholder. Their budget may not allow for such music licensing, but they can search Incantio for recommendations related to similar mood, tempo, vocals, and more.
“You can go into our catalog, find an artist, know what their pricing is right away, be able to get a clean license that’s already pre-approved and license it immediately,” he said.
Incantio is in beta now, but has early partnerships with key players, including on the supply side with CD Baby, a digital distributor used by over 3 million musicians, and on the demand side with Disco, an Australian company used by 90% of global music supervisors.
Chris Ballew, onetime lead singer of the Presidents of the United States of America, is signed on, as are Carrie Akre (Hammerbox and Goodness), Steve Fisk (Pigeonhed), Mike McCready (Rockfords), Kevin Murphy (Small Paul & Moondoggies) and 200 others.
Being a founder doesn’t replace playing music for Newcomb, who calls the latter “like going to church.” But he does love being an entrepreneur, building a community where independent musicians can be heard — and paid.
He recalled a meeting with Ted Cohen, an advisor to Incantio who worked in A&R for such bands as the Sex Pistols and the Pretenders. Cohen told Newcomb, “Every band is just a startup. Every startup is just a band.”
“I started every band I’ve ever been in,” Newcomb laughed. “So, yeah, this does feel like that.”
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