For investors · $3.5M seed open · April 2026
We're rebuilding the
music industry's spine.
Majiks is the music industry, rebuilt from first principles for the AI era — owned end-to-end, federated by design, already in production. Three of eight platforms live (.online, .studio, .media); .music in pre-launch. 756+ tracks, 21 artists, formal ACE-Step partnership, approved at two federal registries with a third filing pending.
AI made music infinite — which means the only scarce thing left is trust, provenance, and the relationship between maker and listener. Whoever owns the registry of who-made-what becomes the spine of the next music economy. Not Spotify. Not the labels. Not even the AI companies.We're building that registry — and the entire creator-to-listener stack on top of it.
~7 minute read · numbers throughout · last updated 2026-04-30
Numbers, not narrative.
Three of eight platforms live in production; .music in pre-launch. One formal foundation-model partnership. Approved at two federal music registries with a third filing pending. Real organic growth on the public sites — zero ad spend.
- .online Production · v5.5.0 · container unicorn-majiks-online
- .studio Production · v2.0.0 · notarized DMG · code-signed · 655 MB on B2
- .media Production · sync licensing surface live
- .music Pre-launch · ACE-Step API + WebGPU LLM · cross-platform browser DAW
- ISRC Registrant Approved · operational · Aaron paid the fees · DistroKid retail parity
- SoundExchange Active · PAYEE 2181216211 · digital performance royalties
- MLC Publisher Member Submitted 2026-05-05 · Music Modernization Act mechanical rail
- ISRC Manager Applied · wholesale tier (issue ISRCs to other labels)
- ACE-Step partnership Active · Junmin Gong · co-marketing as Apple Silicon reference
- Substrate Unicorn Commander · in-house · zero vendor lock-in · Keycloak SSO
The music industry just hit four inflection points at once.
None of these existed at production maturity in 2024. All four did by April 2026.
Open-source ACE-Step 1.5 (MIT-licensed, MLX-native) now beats Suno v5 on SongEval — 4.79 vs 4.72. Generation under 2s on A100, under 10s on consumer GPUs.
UMG–Udio (Oct '25) set the per-generation royalty template at $0.002–$0.005, attribution-weighted. Warner settled both Suno + Udio (Nov '25). UMG and Sony still litigating Suno; SJ motions due Jan 8 2027 (Judge Saylor IV, D. Mass.).
87% of Spotify tracks fall below the 1,000-stream demonetization threshold. Bandcamp paid $218M direct in 2025 alone at 82% pass-through. The economics broke; ownership-based alternatives have a window.
$3.9B+ royalties processed, 50M+ songs, 68k+ members. The federally-mandated mechanical-royalty rail for AI music is live — and we're a registered MLC Publisher Member.
AI music crossed the quality line, the labels flipped to licensing, streaming hit its ceiling, and regulation now rewards open + disclosed — all in the same 18 months.
Any one would be a story. Stacked, they're a thesis.
The infrastructure exists. The pipeline runs. 207 tracks in the Studio job database; 89% job completion across 1,040 generations. The question was never whether it could be built — it was whether anyone could replicate the distribution rail underneath it.
Aaron is approved at the ISRC artist registrant tier — we mint authoritative ISRCs today for any artist on Majiks. Active SoundExchange Member (PAYEE 2181216211 — federally-mandated collective for digital performance royalties). MLC Publisher Member registered (mechanical-royalty rail under the Music Modernization Act). Filed for the ISRC Manager wholesale tier — the same authority DistroKid and CD Baby hold. Code can be copied. Authorized-registry status takes years to earn — and the window is open right now.
Unicorn Commander is Magic Unicorn's distributed federated infrastructure. We plan to release Majiks itself as decentralized infrastructure: anyone can run a node, host their own music, mint their own provenance certs. It all registers back to us — the way DNS root servers work for the open internet.
Creator owns the master (Studio runs open-source models on your hardware — the file is yours, forever, in commercial perpetuity). Listener owns the file ($1 per song on Online, no subscription, 100% to artist on personal). Suno’s ToS is verbatim: "If you are using the free version of Suno (our Basic tier), we retain ownership of the songs you generate." Spotify pays ~$0.003 per stream — 333 plays to earn $1. Ownership all the way down is the only relationship that doesn’t get eaten by intermediaries.
The contested act in RIAA v. Suno is the training of a model on unlicensed catalog. We don't train a foundation model. We deploy ACE-Step — open-weights, MIT-licensed, training data disclosed (licensed + public domain + royalty-free + synthetic MIDI-to-audio). If Sony wins fair use, we're the only credible AI-music platform structurally in compliance with the new rule. If Sony settles, the per-gen template applies to operators who train, not deployers like us. In every outcome, our stack is neutral or advantaged.
Capital is flowing into audio AI.
The seed-stage comps are our reference class. The late-stage trajectory shows where the category is heading.
100K users pre-round · consumer AI music tool
AI rights / TraceID licensing platform
AI attribution + licensing infrastructure
$200M+ post-money · foundation-model competitor
$2.45B post · $200M ARR at the time of close
$11B post · 10× in 25 months
Acquired by Google · terms undisclosed
New audio-ML strategic-acquisition ceiling
Apples-to-apples: Mozart AI raised $6M for a single consumer tool with 100K users and no ecosystem. We're raising less cash at a comparable post-money — but with a multi-product platform live in production, formal foundation-model partnership, approved registry status, and 8 verticals already lit up. Below-Mozart cash, above-Mozart shipping.
Foundation-model partner. Federal registries. Filings in flight.
First formal partnership with founder Junmin Gong (active since 2026-03-26). Free cloud API for Majiks users, XL-tier model early access, co-marketing as production reference Apple Silicon implementation. The team recommended Majiks transition to MLX.
Approved at the artist registrant tier. Aaron paid the fees and cleared the process personally. We mint authoritative ISRCs today for any artist on Majiks, all under our registrant name.
The wholesale tier above registrant — authority to issue ISRC blocks to other labels (the same status DistroKid and CD Baby hold). Approval converts Majiks from retail issuer into the registry of registries.
Federally-mandated collective for digital performance royalties on non-interactive streams (webcasts, SiriusXM, Pandora). Active payee since 2026-03-31.
The Mechanical Licensing Collective itself — federally-mandated body created under the Music Modernization Act. $3.9B+ in royalties processed, $3.3B+ distributed.
Provides Unicorn Commander — the distributed federated substrate Majiks runs on. Sovereign, in-house, no vendor lock-in. Keycloak SSO across all properties.
Founders. Full-stack. Already shipping.
Builds the infrastructure (Unicorn Commander) and the creator suite — Studio, Art Studio, Songwriter. Apple Silicon + ML systems specialist. Ships notarized macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, web. ACE-Step's recommended Apple Silicon reference. The thing actually exists because Aaron builds it.
ACE-Step partnership owner with Junmin Gong. B2B distribution and MSP background through Genesis Flow Labs. Frisco, TX. The deals get done because Shafen is making them.
$3.5M seed at $30M post-money.
~12% dilution. 18-month runway. Eight verticals lit up.
3-4 senior eng × 18 months · cross-platform .music · .news production · .kids scale · ISRC Manager rails · mobile · ACE-Step XL launch
Reach artists, listeners, sync customers · influencer partnerships · content marketing · B2B for .academy/.training
First 5K catalog artists · 50K+ ecosystem accounts · signature character development · partner artist deals
ISRC Manager wholesale tier filing + counsel · MLC integration · E&O underwriting for .media sync · NO FAKES Act compliance prep
Aaron + Shafen + 1-2 ops × 18 months · currently $0 burn — first dollars-in unlock the team
Variance buffer · opportunistic spend for partnership velocity, model upgrades, distribution windows
- → MLC DPID active · ISRC Manager wholesale tier approved
- → .media first 5 B2B sync contracts signed
- → 1K+ paying ecosystem accounts across .online + .studio
- → First 2 hires onboarded (eng + customer ops)
- → ISRC Manager active — “registry of registries” issuing prefixes
- → .kids + .news launched · 1K+ listeners each
- → .music cross-platform browser DAW shipped to non-Mac creators
- → ACE-Step-1.5-XL launched as Apple Silicon reference
- → 25K+ ecosystem accounts across the verticals
- → .media sync revenue stack: 25+ B2B customers
- → 5K+ catalog artists · ≥1 release in the ecosystem
- → 50K+ ecosystem accounts across 8 verticals
- → 25K+ ISRCs issued through Majiks's registrant authority
- → .media sync revenue: 50+ B2B customers · demonstrable retention
- → .news + .kids · 10K+ listeners each
- → Series A round closing · 12-month cohort retention curves documented
Full integrated master schedule + spend plan with quarterly deliverables, hiring trajectory, critical path, and risk register: available in the data room.
Why $30M post is defensible: working multi-product platform live in production (no MVP risk) · formal foundation-model partnership (ACE-Step) · approved registry status (ISRC Registrant · SoundExchange Member · MLC Publisher Member) · 8 verticals already lit up · $0 burn since inception · 18 months ahead on the publishing-ecosystem play. Mozart AI raised $6M at a comparable post-money with 100K users and no ecosystem.
Direct line to a co-founder. No analyst gauntlet. The platform is in production.