Baton, a music startup, has successfully secured $4.2 million in funding, as announced today. The company, founded by musician Gabe Warshaw, plans to utilize the new capital to advance its product development, expand its team, and introduce new features.
Having initiated its private beta in 2022, Baton enables artists, producers, managers, A&Rs (talent scouts), and catalog administrators to share unreleased music, discover fresh material, engage in collaborations, and ensure proper crediting and compensation for creators. The platform aims to empower musicians, offering transparency regarding the use of their material, whether it be a finished song, a single sample, or a pack. Baton provides creators with insights into who has accessed their material, fostering transparency in the collaborative process.
Additionally, Baton is constructing a decentralized infrastructure to allow creators to upload songs without the risk of intellectual property theft. The platform also features an automatic payout system.
Gabe Warshaw, the founder, shared his motivation, stating, “Baton was born from a desire to build digital infrastructure that could address many of the problems I was seeing on a daily basis.”
Baton has claimed to facilitate connections among hundreds of artists and safeguard the intellectual property of thousands of songs. Notable clients include Grammy-winning producer DJ Dahi, known for collaborations with Kendrick Lamar, Drake, J. Cole, Rihanna, and Post Malone, as well as A&R Sickamore, influential in the careers of Nicki Minaj and Travis Scott.
The funding round was led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with participation from Techstars, Dorm Room Fund, NYU’s Innovation Venture Fund, the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship, Dark Arts, Franklin Templeton, Harmonic Future, and industry angels.
The investment will be allocated to hiring engineering, product, and marketing roles, as well as supporting Baton’s development of a mixed-media collaboration and rights management ecosystem for visual artists, filmmakers, and designers. Interested users can sign up on Baton’s website for early access to the platform.
