Teosto to invest in Artist Exchange

Teosto and Finnish start-up company Artist Exchange signed an agreement that gives Teosto a five per cent ownership stake in Artist Exchange. The cooperation between the organisations will focus on digital services that benefit performing artists and customers who buy live music.

This is Teosto’s first investment in a start-up company.

“Owning a stake in a start-up is an interesting new avenue for Teosto. The music industry is changing rapidly, and it is important for us to operate in different networks that support music authors and performing artists. Investing in a start-up company that works for the digitalisation of the music industry is in line with our own strategy and will hopefully benefit the industry at large,” says Katri Sipilä, CEO of Teosto.

“Artist Exchange’s vision is to offer an innovative online platform that brings ease and efficiency to buying live music, both in Finland and abroad. In our view, cooperating with a key industry player such as Teosto supports our vision and helps us find new ways of serving our customers,” says Heikki Raulo, CEO and Founder of Artist Exchange.

Other owners of Artist Exchange include the company’s effective management, Takeoff Partners, Sanoma Digital COO Marja-Leena Tuomola and Samu Haber, who is best know as the lead singer of Sunrise Avenue.

Developing the service together

Both Teosto and Artist Exchange have previous experience in developing live music services. In October 2015, Teosto launched its Keikkamobiili App for performing artists. The artists can use the app for sending the song lists of their performances and concerts to Teosto. In spring 2016, Artist Exchange published an online service at www.artistexchange.fi. The service is a sales platform for live music, used by music professionals, companies and private persons, as well as music agencies. It offers the largest selection of artists in Finland.  

“Both of us have previously worked in the field of digital live music services, which makes this cooperation a natural choice. We want to create services that support the use of Finnish music at events and increase the overall number of music events over the long term. The ideal would be to provide artists and performers with a single service that contains all the functions they need to manage their performances,” says Roope Pajasmaa, Head of Service Development at Teosto.

Further information:
Roope Pajasmaa, Teosto, tel. +358 50 365 8351, roope.pajasmaa@teosto.fi
Heikki Raulo, Artist Exchange, tel. +358 40 7191589, heikki.raulo@artistexchange.fi