Amuse has paid $10m in advances to DIY artists via its AI-powered ‘Fast Forward’ platform to date

DIY digital music distribution company Amuse says it has handed out 50,000 royalty advances through its automated platform Fast Forward, totaling $10 million.

Sweden-headquartered Amuse launched Fast Forward in 2019, describing it as a data-driven service that automatically analyzes an artist’s performance across billions of data points to determine an advance amount.

As of this month, Amuse has added YouTube to Fast Forward’s calculations, which the company says makes it the only automated royalty advance service to include all three of the largest streaming music services; presumably the other two are Spotify and Apple Music.

Amuse says that more than half of the artists who take an advance go on to recoup the amount and take another advance. On average, artists on Fast Forward come back for four advances.

“Independent artists have so much to contend with in today’s market, and not being able to access your royalty payments when you need them most can be the difference between taking the next step in your career, or missing the opportunity,” said Jonatan Bodvill, Head of Tech at Amuse.

“With its 100% data-driven approach, Fast Forward gives independent artists an equal chance to compete, allowing them the freedom to access their royalties and seize opportunities as they arise. We are proud to have delivered 50,000 advances to the DIY sector, and we look forward to delivering the next 50,000.”

Extracting royalty payments from digital streaming platform can be “a painfully slow process for independent artists,” Amuse said. “A Spotify royalty that happens in January normally takes over three months to materialize for the artist, and for some other streaming services, the delay is even longer.”

That means artists who don’t have a record deal can face obstacles if they’re relying on streaming income to fund their ongoing activities.

“Not being able to access your royalty payments when you need them most can be the difference between taking the next step in your career, or missing the opportunity.”

Jonatan Bodvill, Amuse

“The Fast Forward feature that Amuse offers has really helped me to have future royalties readily available to invest in my music. It’s one of the only distributors I’ve seen that offers this convenience to artists,” Colombian hip hop artist UNIVERSE said in a statement.

“Amuse helped me a lot at the beginning of my career to buy my equipment, and I’m very grateful.”

Co-founded in 2017 by former Warner Music Group exec Diego Farias, Amuse has been majority-owned by the UK’s Bridford Group since 2020. Earlier this month, the company announced it had appointed Giorgio D’Ambrosio as its CEO.

Earlier this year, it appointed Steeve Führ as its Chief Financial Officer.

The company says it now maintains over 400 partnerships with independent acts globally and employs close to 100 people across offices in New York, London and Stockholm.Music Business Worldwide