A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya, a startup building a series of interactive apps for playing with sound and music, has raised a $5.5 million pre-seed round from investors including Mantis VC, SV Angel, Boxgroup, Quiet Capital, and Collaborative Fund, with former Spotify executive Dawn Ostroff joining as an advisor.
The company was founded by Máuhan M Zonoozy, former head of innovation at Spotify and founder of video remixing startup Bubbl, which was acquired by Cricket Media. Zonoozy said that while music streaming solved access to content, most listener interaction remains focused on passive consumption rather than creation, and he saw an opportunity to let people engage playfully with music the way younger audiences already do through games and filters.
The startup releases its products as individual “singles,” including a Chrome extension that manipulates browser audio, a stem-mixing website, and tools that turn physical patterns or YouTube videos into musical samples. Its most developed product, an iOS app called bop, lets users build custom mixes using instruments and effects, then export them to social platforms; a multiplayer remixing version is in development.
While the company has recently introduced prompt-based sound creation features, Zonoozy said he deliberately avoids making AI-generated music the core of the experience, arguing that as AI makes content more abundant, human taste and participation become increasingly valuable rather than obsolete.
Featured image: Credit: A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya
