News

MusicFutures has announced the successful recipients for the first round of its Innovation Funding Call, supporting six pioneering projects.

The fund supports forward-thinking small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and community interest companies (CICs) in the Liverpool City Region developing bold ideas that could transform how music is created, experienced, and shared, while driving sustainability, diversity, inclusion, and equality in the sector.

Successful projects were selected for their potential to push boundaries across areas including new business models, platforms, educational tools and creative wellbeing solutions.

Awarded companies will each receive funding of up to £20,000 as well as additional support in the form of tailored guidance to accelerate Research & Development (R&D), prototyping, testing and deployment of innovative solutions.

We are pleased to announce the companies that have been awarded are:

1. Arts Bar Baltic’s STAGECAST: Transforming Grassroots Live Music Production

An AI-assisted platform that transforms grassroots venue performances into ready-to-use digital content. Combining portable recording and automated content creation, it helps emerging artists and grassroots venues produce professional-quality assets faster and more affordably.

2. Big Cookie’s FanSight: Using Data to Help Independent Artists Grow

A direct-to-fan intelligence platform that gives independent artists deeper insight into their audience. FanSight combines consent-based analytics from artists’ owned communities with listening across social channels, showing what fans are asking for, from merch and re-releases to tour locations, alongside sentiment, audience growth and campaign attribution. Artists can measure the impact of any release or announcement before and after it lands, helping them decide what to release, where to tour and how to grow.

3. Finding the Music Inside’s Lucentra: Supporting Creative Development through a structured framework and AI

A conversational AI tool supporting music creators through creative challenges such as blocks, pressure and self-doubt. Built on a five-step practitioner-led framework, it helps creators identify challenges, understand causes and develop practical next steps. The project scales this methodology by embedding the framework into AI instructions, ensuring the structured approach guides the conversation.

4. MusicSeen and You. Smart. Thing. (YST): Connecting Music Discovery and Journey Planning

MusicSeen will build on its existing platform and music data to develop an interactive local music discovery infrastructure, connecting artist, venue and event data with personalised recommendations and audience insight. In partnership with You. Smart. Thing. (YST), the project will explore how connecting music discovery with safer, more accessible and sustainable journey planning can help more people discover live music they love and access Liverpool City Region’s music scene.

5. SoMi Academy’s UkeSteps: Supporting the future of Music Education Through Technology

Scaling UkeSteps from a prototype to a scalable product: an online instrumental learning platform designed to support young musicians beyond traditional lessons.

6. Sonalux’s Shifterr: Creating new ways to experience and learn music

A hardware-based music innovation that enables real-time interaction with streamed music. Combining real-time audio analysis, music-learning functions and an accessible hardware interface, the device will allow users to interact with streamed music in ways with enabled features such as visual musical feedback, tempo adjustment, and key changes.

From AI music tools, digital music platforms to improved music education, grassroots venue promotional support and smarter audience experiences, the funded projects demonstrate the range of innovation emerging from Liverpool City Region’s music sector.

Professor Richard Koeck, Director of MusicFutures, added:

“MusicFutures is proud to be able to fund these ambitious projects, giving music businesses across Liverpool City Region the R&D support and investment they need to test bold ideas, develop new products and services, and create new opportunities for growth.”

Delivery on each project will run through to March 2027. As these projects move through research, development and testing, they will explore new ways innovation can support artists, audiences and organisations – helping shape the next chapter of Liverpool City Region’s contribution to both the regional and global music sector.