Surf Music is helping songwriters land deals with buyers

Amount raised: $3.5 million, according to the company.

What it does: Surf Music is a match-making tool that connects songwriters and producers with buyers in the music and entertainment business. The goal is to find ways to help creators sell their unreleased works to collaborators in music, TV, film, or other areas of entertainment.

Why it matters for the music world: In a world where some companies are building AI tools that generate songs via text prompts, Surf Music is focusing on connecting human creators and buyers.

The company said it works with major labels like Sony Music and Warner Music, and offers a tiered subscription model for individual users to join. It recently helped match showrunner David Shin with songwriters Shayon Daniels and India Carney and 2Soul Music and Sunny Boy for two music placements on the Disney+ and Hulu show "House of the Owl."

"One thing that we really are firm about is empowering the creator and making sure that the creator receives as much as they can get from a song, which means that we don't take any transaction fees or we don't take any royalties or whatnot, even if a song is placed," CEO Ken Kobori told BI.

"We really want to cut out that middleman and be able to deliver songs directly from the creator to the buyer," Kobori said.