Music platform Baton announced on Tuesday that it raised $4.2 million to develop its products further, using AI and a decentralized payment infrastructure to support collaboration among creators.

Photo Credit: Mitchell Luo

Music startup Baton announced on Tuesday that it raised $4.2 million to develop its AI-backed decentralized music infrastructure that supports collaboration among creators.

Baton launched its private beta in 2022, allowing artists, producers, talent scouts, and catalog administrators to securely share unreleased tracks and music. Founded by Musician Gabe Warshaw, the platform enables users to streamline collaboration processes alongside accurate crediting and compensation for their work.

Baton is developing its decentralized ‘blockchain-enabled collaboration protocol’ focused on IP protection and fair compensation for artists, filmmakers, and designers. The infrastructure will provide safe storage and sharing for creators’ music and a payout system to effectively manage complicated royalty income streams.

In a statement announcing the successful funding round, CEO Warshaw talked about the tremendous untapped potential for unreleased music and tracks. “There are 100,000 songs released to streaming services every day, but most material is unreleased,” he explained.

The funding will kickstart Baton’s plans of expanding with more human resources in engineering, product, and marketing roles. Warshaw believes Baton will emerge as more than just a collaboration platform and become an ecosystem that securely connects valuable unreleased music with the right audience.

The $4.2 million funding round was led by BITKRAFT Ventures, an investment firm focused on global startups and mid-stage companies in interactive media, gaming, and esports.

Earlier this year, BITKRAFT also led a $6 million funding round for Infinite Canvas – a studio that promotes and enables user-generated content on platforms like Roblox and Fortnite.

Other participators in Baton’s fundraising round were Techstars, Dorm Room Fund, NYU’s Innovation Venture Fund, the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship, Dark Arts, Franklin Templeton, Harmonic Future, and others.