Seattle musician launches AI startup connecting independent artists and visual creators for self-licensing
Seattle musician Danny Newcomb launches Incantio, an AI platform connecting musicians with visual creators for direct music licensing. Artists set prices and retain ownership.
From Stage to Startup: Seattle Musician Launches AI Platform Connecting Artists with Visual Creators
Seattle-based musician Danny Newcomb has introduced Incantio, a new startup that uses artificial intelligence to create a marketplace where musicians and creators can self-license their work. This platform enables artists to offer their catalogs directly to visual creators, who can then discover and license music for their projects.
Incantio’s core features include:
- Allowing musicians, composers, songwriters, and sound artists to list their work for licensing
- Enabling artists to set their own prices
- Direct payment to artists
- Retention of full ownership of non-exclusive catalogs
Why Incantio Matters for Independent Musicians
Newcomb’s motivation behind Incantio stems from the growth of independent musicians in the global market. Roughly half of the music market is now made up of independent artists who often lack access to platforms that let them manage and price their own rights for licensing.
The music industry remains dominated by three major publishers: Sony Music Publishing (25%), Universal Music Publishing (23%), and Warner Chappell Music (12%). Together, they accounted for 60% of published music revenue in recent years. Independent artists hold the remaining 40%, but without many tools to capitalize fully on their rights.
Incantio aims to give artists a direct way to set the value of their digital rights and recapture some revenue traditionally controlled by major labels.
Danny Newcomb: Musician Turned Entrepreneur
Newcomb’s background includes playing in prominent Seattle bands such as Shadow, The Rockfords, Sugarmakers, and Goodness. He has a history of starting bands, and he draws a parallel to founding Incantio.
He points out that while Seattle is known as a "music town" with a rich recording history, it hasn’t focused much on music publishing. Incantio seeks to fill that gap by empowering local and independent artists to manage their publishing rights more effectively.
For creatives interested in exploring AI tools and platforms that support artistic collaboration and licensing, checking out resources on AI tools for generative art and prompt engineering can offer valuable insights.
