Timbaland invests in music startup Open Labs

Timbaland is feelin’ some startup action. The rapper and producer is leading the first round of funding for Open Labs, a music startup that creates hardware and software solutions for bands and producers.

Open Labs brought its flagship product StageLight to market six months ago and has seen significant growth since then. The $10 software makes it easy to create music. The SongBuilder tool allows you to choose a genre and then guides you through a step-by-step process to select instruments and patterns. After the songs are completed, you can share them with friends. Open Labs also designs touch interfaces that professional musicians use to create songs, but StageLight brought the company into the consumer market.

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“Our focus as a company is to make music creation accessible to all people,” said Cliff Mountain, CEO of Open Labs. “The greatest obstacles have been price and the amount of time to become proficient on music software. With StageLight, we have overcome both challenges with an inexpensive, easy-to-use music creation software app. The software takes advantage of the historical knowledge and professional artist’s needs while focusing on teaching new musicians how to create songs.”

Timbaland said in a statement that he has been using Open Labs’ technology for years and wanted to invest in the vision to bring “music creation to the masses.” Open Labs has signed deals with Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft, and Intel, and this round of $500,000 will help the company add more customers and continue growing StageLight. The company is based in Austin.

Now in addition to producer, songwriter, and rapper, Timbaland can add angel investor to his list of titles.

Photo Credit: Live at J&R/Flickr