Audio Chateau Records has announced multiple executive appointments as well as a $4.5 million raise. Photo Credit: Markus Winkler
Audio Up Media’s Audio Chateau Records (ACR) has announced a $4.5 million raise and confirmed multiple executive appointments.
Jared Gutstadt-founded and Reservoir Media-backed Audio Up reached out with word of the multimillion-dollar raise, which follows the January of 2024 launch of the self-described “innovative new label” Audio Chateau Records. As its name suggests, this label operates from Audio Up’s multi-acre Audio Chateau “satellite” creative facilities.
Located in Nashville and Los Angeles, said facilities boast “a full stack of production and event capabilities,” according to the appropriate website. Meanwhile, the label’s roster includes acts such as Grupo Linea, Uncle Drank, the Compton Cowboys’ Randy Savvy, and Maejor Audio Sunshine (featuring the aforementioned Gutstadt).
Running with the details, ACR earlier in August celebrated its “first two drops,” and the previously noted $4.5 million in funding was put up by Exceleration Music managing partner Glen Barros, Partners in Kind founder (and Hormel Foods heiress) Gillian Hormel, and Music Direct audio consultant Jonathan Schulman*.
*Update, August 20th: Whoops: looks like we got the wrong Jonathan Schulman — the Music Direct audio consultant told DMN he’s not involved in this project.
Furthermore, Barros and Schulman have signed on as board members for Audio Chateau Records, which has also revealed multiple executive appointments. Coming aboard as A&R consultant is Nashville-based CAA and Sounds Good vet Grayson Flatness, who’s joining head of legal and business affairs Kate London.
Since May of 2022, the former Interscope and Global Music Rights higher-up London has held the same role at Audio Up proper, and she’s expected to continue handling the duties alongside those associated with ACR.
Keeping the focus on the Nashville music scene for a moment, Audio Chateau Records’ funding announcement and executive appointments have arrived on the heels of a partnership kickoff involving Timbaland’s Mosley Music and Universal Music Nashville. Under that tie-up, the companies say they’re working towards “breaking barriers in country music.”
And when it comes to wider funding developments in July and to this point in August, Audio Chateau Records’ $4.5 million tranche has entered the media spotlight roughly two weeks after content-attribution startup ProRata.ai revealed it’d pulled down $25 million. On top of the sizable Series A, the business added Universal Music, zeroing in more than ever on AI media and the platforms through which it’s made, as a partner.
July, for its part, delivered raises for companies including Posh (a $22 million Series A), Bridge.audio ($3.3 million), and Submix (a $1 million pre-seed round) – with each compiled in DMN Pro’s one-stop Music Industry Funding Tracker.
