In a world drowning in AI-generated music and prompt-heavy tools, a new startup called A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya is pushing back. Founded by former Spotify head of innovation Máuhan M Zonoozy, the company designs small, playful apps that let users interact with sound and vocals—no prompting to turn into a virtual artist. It just released a $5.5 million pre-seed raise led by VCs like Mantis, SV Angel, Boxgroup, and others.
Zonoozy left Spotify in 2024 with a clear sense: streaming solved access, but almost all interaction with music remained passive. He saw younger users treating filters, games, and remix tools like digital playgrounds. His aim is to shift music from consumption back into participation.
Apps That Feel Like Toys
Each product from A Vinyl Bar ships like a single from an album. The first batch includes “Speed Surfer,” a Chrome extension that lets you manipulate pitch and filters on audio playing in your browser; “Usersound,” where each letter in your username becomes a note; “Stacks,” a 3×3 grid stem player for turning individual parts of music on or off; and “Drops,” which lets falling marbles trigger musical notes. There’s also “Sampler,” a tool that chops YouTube videos into beat-based music playgrounds.
The standout release is an iOS app named Bop. It gives users a grid for placing instruments and effects, lets them adjust tempo, and apply one-off effects. Finished tracks can be exported directly to social platforms like TikTok or Instagram. A multiplayer version is also in the works.
No AI? Well, Sort Of
Zonoozy makes a conscious effort to minimize AI usage in the user-facing parts of these apps. He believes that music’s future shouldn’t be about AI churning out content nonstop. Instead, with music becoming easy to generate, what becomes rare—taste, human perspective, actual interaction—matters even more.
This year A Vinyl Bar plans to add a “musical sandbox mixer,” where people can toy with core elements of music creation, including crafting their own instruments.
This isn’t anti-AI entirely. The startup is open to using AI behind the scenes, for infrastructure or non-user-facing roles, but isn’t interested in letting AI dominate the creative process.
What This Means in Context
Something’s shifted in how people want to make music. Generative AI tools that mimic famous artists suit some needs, but they reduce music-making to imitation. A Vinyl Bar is betting there’s growing hunger for tools that feel joyful, experimental, and homemade. By offering low barrier, interactive apps, it taps into a DIY ethos that’s resonated for decades—from garage bands to indie label culture.
Investors are backing the bet. With $5.5 million in backing from major venture funds and music industry veterans, the startup has enough runway to try—and fail—quickly. These “app singles” let users fail fast and learn fast. Instead of being seduced by the buzz around AI, this company wants to bring sound back to its playful roots.
What to watch: if A Vinyl Bar can build a community around its tools, users collaborating, remixing, sharing, becoming co-creators—this could redefine small-scale music innovation. It may well show that the moment isn’t about replacing creators with AI, but giving them new ways to play.
