DAWn Audio Wins 2024 Music Tectonics Swimming With Narwhals Competition
New Orleans-based DAWn Audio glided to victory in this year’s Swimming with Narwhals startup competition at Music Tectonics, sweeping both the jury and the audience choice prizes. The startup was one of four strong finalists tackling some of the thorniest challenges in the life of artists and producers, including how to collaborate remotely and in person and how to find their audience.
DAWn Audio presented a cool tech twist to ease remote collaboration. As CEO Diego Pinzon and CSO Mandy Ortiz laid out in their assured joint pitch, the essential problem that DAWn Audio solves is that musicians and producers need a way to collaborate on tracks while still working in the DAW they prefer. DAWn Audio provides that bridge, the first step in building a large, meaningful online musician community.
This innovative approach to a key creative problem swayed a jury of investors: Andrew Kahn (Crush Ventures), Rishi Patel (Plus 8 Equity), and Sun Jen Yung (Nfluence Partners). It also won over the conference audience who voted DAWn Audio as their pick for this year’s Narwhal. Judges asked incisive questions, pushing finalists to dig into the details of their companies’ revenue models, potential licensing pitfalls, and more. The jury scored pitches on originality, likeliness to succeed, and product/market fit.
“We’ve pitched, attended, and tabled at various conferences before, but being right on the Santa Monica beachfront played a huge role in the energy we brought to the stage. We’d heard from past founders about how the Narwhals pitch could serve as a catalyst for fundraising and product launch efforts, and we’re looking to do both, which is why it was great to walk away with wins in both the judges and audience vote categories,” says Diego Pinzon, co-founder and CEO of DAWn Audio. “Tectonics provided us with a platform to expand our network of investors and supporters as we work to finalize our pre-seed round– 60% of which we’ve already closed.”
Past winners have included several apps and platforms that have gone on to thrive, such as Fave, a superfan gathering place before the music industry became obsessed with fandom, and Audioshake, an AI music company that has opened up the industry to the wonders of stem separation. It has consistently shone a light on founders who break the stereotypical founder mold.
“We created Swimming with Narwhals to give startups a real opportunity to level up and gain solid, meaningful feedback and connections,” explains Music Tectonics founder and director Dmitri Vietze. “For the past five years, our conference and competition has drawn some of the world’s most exuberant music tech entrepreneurs, founders eager to shake up and to work seriously with the music industry and artists. We see the competition as expanding and empowering who shapes the music business.”
Swimming with Narwhals was part of the most successful Music Tectonics to date. With attendance at an all-time high, this year’s finely tuned blend of business, networking, and fun expanded to include a Creator Fair, highlighting music’s newest generations of creators. Music Tectonics is a project of Rock Paper Scissors, the music innovation PR firm that was recently named an Inc. Power Partner for its creative and effective approach to amplifying music tech companies’ ideas.
Meet the Narwhal Finalists
DAWn Audio
130M+ creators globally are stuck emailing audio files when collaborating because of an incompatibility in the tools they use, called Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs). DAWn bridges compatibility between DAWs, enabling creators to collaborate live, online across their preferred tools. This technology serves as the foundation for a larger vision of building a "live creation network," fostering social and communal engagement while centering co-creation.
un:hurd music is a music insights, analytics and marketing platform that combines big data analysis with smart marketing recommendations and promotional tools. un:hurd music is a data-led, music marketing tool which empowers artists and record labels to make more effective marketing decisions. Now working with over 100,000 artists, un:hurd processes an artists data to create tailored marketing recommendations before facilitating platform agnostic, data-driven, specific campaigns. un:hurd music provide major label marketing power but for independent artists and record labels.
Soloist's social media platform allows musicians to connect, collaborate and share music to revolutionize their practice. Soloist simulates the experience of having bandmates for musicians who, on average, spend 90% of their time practicing their instrument alone. In one year of validation Soloist has bootstrapped $142,400, won three pitch competitions and three grants, and secured two private equity investments from Elevate Ventures.
Soundspace is the future of easy space sharing. Originating in the local Indianapolis music scene with recording studios and rehearsal spaces, now Soundspace’s SaaS platform manages all aspects of operations for shared spaces including booking, payments, memberships, financials, and more. Soundspace's platform, in tandem with a proprietary demand-based booking system, can be used to make any commercial real estate space into an easily bookable or short-term rental workspace.
About the Swimming with Narwhals Competition
Spotlighting creative startups through this competition is one of the ways the Music Tectonics conference focuses on music innovation—wherever it’s shaking up the industry. Music Tectonics’ competition keeps the focus on real-world innovators who are poised to make waves in the music industry. Read more about the competition at the Music Tectonics website.
About Music Tectonics
Music Tectonics was founded to explore the deep seismic shifts that keep the music industry unsettled. Music Tectonics unites music tech innovators across industry boundaries to share insights and get business done. Explore the new terrain at the epicenter of music and technology through podcasts, media services, and online events at MusicTectonics.com.