Want to build a music-tech startup? Read this first
Over the past two months, I've had in-depth conversations with over 30 music-tech founders, and reviewed nearly an equal number of pitch decks.
After a decade of tracking this landscape, several patterns have emerged — fundamental insights that I think a significant portion of music-tech founders are overlooking when positioning their products and businesses.
Here are four of the most common patterns I've noticed, which I'm sharing openly in hopes of helping founders build more thoughtfully in this market.
1. Please...PLEASE...talk to your actual customers
Building cool technology isn't enough; you need to solve real problems for real people.
This means deeply understanding your customers — whether you're building for artists, industry professionals, fans, or a combination of the three.
One concerning pattern I've noticed is founders building "fan-centric" products without actually talking to fans. When I ask these founders if they've tested their assumptions with real fans in their target user base, I often get silence. This disconnect is particularly worrying; if we're hyping up "superfans" but not listening to their perspectives, what do we expect is going to happen?
The same applies to B2B products. Many founders — especially in licensing, rights, or data management — assume industry professionals will adopt their solution simply because it's "innovative." But if your product adds complexity to existing workflows, adoption will become an expensive uphill battle. Many B2B pitch decks I've reviewed lack a clear, evidence-backed illustration of how traditional industry workflows operate, and where the startup's solution actually saves time or adds value in practical terms.
To quote Y Combinator President/CEO Garry Tan: "When you make software, you have to watch at least 10 people use it. Sit next to them and say absolutely nothing. Force yourself to marinate in the failure of your product design."
I sense that some music-tech founders are afraid to be customer-centric because it's just that humbling. But especially in the early stages, a ruthless customer-first mindset might be your primary vehicle for business insight and momentum.
2. Get real about your market size
Many discussions of the Total Addressable Market (TAM) in music startup pitch decks need a reality check.
Too many decks arrive at their TAM by patching together top-down market stats, like "100M music listeners" or "% growth in recorded music revenue," without considering ground-level, bottom-up user behavior. In my view, this one-sided approach leads to significant overestimates of TAM for music-tech companies, which can burn founders down the road if it compels them to raise rounds that are ultimately unsustainable.
If you're building for everyday music consumers, you need to be asking deeper behavioral questions like: What role does music play in our target users' daily lives, and why? What is their actual willingness to pay for music — and for all entertainment — on a per-wallet basis?
On the industry side: How much are artists and their teams actually spending on software every month? What on-the-ground challenges are they facing in their work, that would make it undeniable for them to pay us to make things easier?
Asking these deeper, bottom-up questions naturally leads to more detailed customer profiling and segmentation — and often goes one step further, to the conclusion that the startup is actually best serving a smaller customer base than what they initially thought.
The other truth that follows from this exercise is that not every music-tech startup is venture-scalable.
This is great! There are so many sustainable opportunities in music-tech that won't meet traditional VC growth expectations.
In fact, many smart music-tech founders I know are opting out of the VC fundraising game, focusing instead on strategic industry partnerships to support more stable growth.
3. Don't bury the lede
Y Combinator, Sequoia, The Hustle, and many other veteran tech and investment companies offer excellent pitch deck templates for new founders.
However, while templates provide structure, over-relying on them runs the risk of obscuring what makes your company unique.
A journalistic tenet I learned early in my career is: DON'T BURY THE LEDE. In other words, don't make people have to do homework or sift through inconsequential details to find out what's most interesting about you and your story. Put the most important parts right at the beginning, and get them to that "aha" moment that truly sets you apart as quickly as possible.
When I consult with startups on their decks, I focus on customizing their pitch to highlight their unique strengths and insights.
Sometimes, this involves making hands-on edits to ensure the deck aligns with proven narrative structures that drive persuasion and attention. For instance, the most compelling startups combine market insights with a strong theory of change — articulating why the industry is ready for transformation, and how their solution enables that shift.
Too often, I see opening "vision statements" that merely describe product features, rather than painting a picture of how the industry will look different if the company succeeds. Nearly every pitch deck editing process I've gone through has started with making the vision statement and theory of change much clearer from the very first title slide.
Other times, this process involves deviating from what a template would otherwise suggest. For example, many pitch deck templates recommend putting the team slide towards the end. But this approach fails to take into account the fact that early-stage investors bet on people and vision as much as products.
Especially for companies that have yet to achieve product-market fit (PMF), the make-or-break factor is whether the investor ultimately resonates with the emotional narrative around your vision for change, and your team's unique qualifications to drive that change.
Hence, for several decks I've worked on, I've actually moved the team slides towards the front, especially if industry expertise is a key differentiator for the company in its pre-PMF stage.
4. Build relationships as seriously as you build software
Many music-tech founders, especially those coming from outside of music, overemphasize technical features while underestimating the importance of industry relationships.
In some cases, not being entrenched in old industry ways can lead to fresh ideas. But in an era where new technologies (read: generative AI) enables competitors to copy your features literally overnight, technology alone is no longer a sustainable advantage, and discounting the role of well-connected industry professionals can become a significant handicap.
For better or for worse, tech adoption in the music business leans heavily on social proof and trust from well-connected industry champions. It's a highly psychological and political landscape, where software is often an afterthought; therefore, relationships are a core ingredient in getting industry professionals to even care about a new technology in the first place.
This is the uphill battle many music-tech founders face. But if you prioritize relationships just as highly as software development — combining your unique viewpoint on the world with a strategic network of advocates — the maze of industry politics can quickly become your advantage.
Closing note
One way to sum up the above patterns is: The music-tech landscape is filled with innovative solutions searching for problems.
By focusing on these fundamentals — deep customer understanding, realistic market sizing, clear competitive advantages, and strong industry relationships — I'm confident that more music-tech founders can build companies that not only survive, but help move the industry forward.
Read more of Water & Music’s coverage on music startups and emerging tech: