Former Spotify Exec Launches Vinyl Bar Startup in Shibuya to Redefine Music Apps

As generative AI continues to reshape the creative landscape, a new wave of startups is empowering users to produce music through AI prompts, mimicking the style of any artist. A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya, a startup with an indie band-inspired name, is dedicated to releasing a suite of lightweight applications that allow users to experiment with sound design and vocals.

The company has secured a $5.5 million pre-seed funding round led by Mantis VC, with participation from SV Angel, Boxgroup, Quiet Capital, Remarkable Ventures, Common Metal, Gold House, Liquid 2 Ventures, Breakers VC, Collaborative Fund, Systemic Ventures, and Dawn Ostroff, the former chief content and advertising officer at Spotify, who has joined as an advisor.

Founded by Máuhan M Zonoozy, a former head of innovation at Spotify, the startup builds on his previous entrepreneurial experience. Before joining Spotify, Zonoozy founded Bubbl, a video clipping and remixing platform that was acquired by Cricket Media.

Zonoozy, who departed Spotify in 2024, expressed his long-standing desire to build his own ventures. He observed that while streaming solved the issue of music accessibility, user interaction remained largely centered on passive consumption rather than creation.

Startup’s founder Máuhan M Zonoozy Image Credits: A Vinyl Bar in ShibuyaImage Credits:A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya

“When I looked at emergent behaviors and younger audiences, I noticed that everyone is growing up interacting with culture through games, filters, and creation tools. I felt there was a unique opportunity to empower people to engage with music in a similar, hands-on way,” he told TechCrunch.

The startup releases these experimental tools like “singles” that collectively form an album. Each app or website shares a common theme: interacting with distinct elements to create or modify sound. For example, Speed Surfer is a Chrome extension that alters the speed and audio filters of content playing in your browser.

Usersound allows users to generate an “audio” username where each letter corresponds to a musical note. Stacks is a stem player that enables mix creation by toggling bars on or off within a 3×3 grid. Drops involves placing plaques to deflect falling marbles, generating musical notes in the process. Sampler converts YouTube videos into music samplers by analyzing beats from various song segments.

The company’s most ambitious offering is an iOS app named bop. This application allows users to place musical instruments and effects in a grid to remix base songs, with options to adjust tempo and add one-time effects. Created mixes can be easily exported to TikTok or Instagram. A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya is also developing a multiplayer version that enables collaborative remixing, and has recently integrated a prompt-based feature for sound generation.

Zonoozy explained that the company deliberately chooses not to embed AI into every aspect of these applications. However, he remains open to leveraging AI for backend infrastructure and product development.

“AI is undoubtedly powerful, but we don’t believe the future of music lies solely in AI-generated songs. If AI makes content more abundant, human taste, perspective, interaction, and participation become even more valuable. Our goal is to ensure that these human elements don’t become rarer,” he said.

This year, the company plans to launch a “musical sandbox mixer” product, enabling users to explore various music-making elements, including the ability to design custom instruments.

The story title was updated because, during testing last month, the startup’s apps lacked prompt-based features. The company has since added these features to its applications.