Why a Spotify executive is backing a new music composition startup

The music streaming business is crowded with competitors from Apple Music to Tidal. But the music composition business hasn't gotten a major boost since Apple introduced GarageBand.

Soundtrap, a startup trying to bring music composition online and to the masses, just raised $6 million for that goal. The startup is backed by former Spotify executive Peter Sterky, Swedish pop producer Andreas Carlsson and other names in music and music tech.

Soundtrap wants to simplify music composition and help more people start composing.

"There are so many people out there who are amateur musicians, but [composition tools] are so darn complex," Soundtrap CEO Per Emanuelsson told Mashable. "It's made for professional studio technicians that have a four-year degree in sound engineering. It's not made for musicians."

Soundtrap is meant to fix that with a cloud-based audio recording platform that allows collaboration across iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and Chromebook devices.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Users sign up online through email, Microsoft Office, Google or Facebook and can then plug in actual instruments, record through a microphone or use Soundtrap's music software. Users can access a recording across devices, collaborate with other musicians and publish the finished version through Soundtrap.

The service offers a basic free version along with $4.99 and $9.99 a month paid tiers. The paid tiers give users access to more music software tools and autotune and increase the number of projects a user can have going at once.

Soundtrap, which is based in Stockholm, raised $2.5 million in seed funding in 2015. The $6 million Series A round brings its total funding to $8.5 million.

Nordic VC firm Industrifonden led the Series A round. The firm invested $3.5 million, with the additional $2.5 million coming from other new and existing investors.

But it's the names in music and music tech behind Soundtrap that are giving the company an added boost. Sterky served as Spotify's chief financial officer and chief operating officer from 2010 to 2015.

Carlsson is part of the crop of Swedish pop producers, like Max Martin, who are behind many Top 40 hits. Carlsson has written and produced music for Madonna and Katy Perry.

Soundtrap expects to have a million users by the end of the year, the company said. Much of its growth in the past year has been in schools, and the company launched a version of its product tailored to music education.