The Incubator

The Incubator

 

Europe's First Music Tech Incubator

Launched in 2016, the Abbey Road REDD Incubator exists to seek out and nurture the best innovations in how we create, capture, and connect music today. It is the lynchpin of Abbey Road REDD, which takes its name from EMI’s Record Engineering Development Department (REDD), whose engineers created the blueprint for the first modern recording consoles amongst countless other innovations within the walls of Abbey Road, including the invention of stereo in 1933 and Artificial Double Tracking (ADT) in the 1960s. Today, our Incubator is central to driving innovation at Abbey Road and within the wider music industry.

We are plugged in to the most exciting and promising ideas in music technology. We find and support inventors and early stage businesses across the world; people and startups who we believe will introduce the next generation of universally adopted technologies into the music business, in the same way our team historically did.

The REDD Incubator is a highly regarded and hugely successful incubation programme. Since our launch in 2016, we have incubated 20 businesses, which between them have introduced important, pioneering technologies across the modern music ecosystem, from creation to consumption.

The BBC, Sky, Wired, The FT, The Guardian and Forbes have all recognised and praised our startups. Most importantly, we have played a fundamental role in helping our startups break through the barriers of what is currently expected, possible and imaginable in the industry we love and serve.

Click here for more information on our incubator programme
 

How We Can Help

We provide a unique and bespoke programme, carefully designed to meet the needs of our startups. We have a development toolkit that is unmatched by any other programme, powered by the depth and breadth of our expertise and network. We also offer access to the studios and leading industry facilities, as well as finance and much more.

The REDD Incubator is run by a dedicated team at Abbey Road, hand-picked for their leading expertise, drive and network in music technology and the music business. They sit alongside the Studios’ management team and an 14-strong board, comprising senior management executives from both Abbey Road and Universal Music Group.

Add to that our large dedicated mentor network, unparalleled access to other major and independent labels, publishers and music companies, research relationships with academia, and access to finance.

Plus, we have a powerhouse of advisors and business connections ready to quickly take our incubated businesses to the next stage of growth.

Interested in finding out more about how we can support your business?

Start by filling in your details though our application page by clicking here.
 
Current Startups
 

The Board

The REDD Incubator board includes leading executives from Abbey Road and its parent company Universal Music Group.

David Sharpe
Sally Davies
Glenn Cooper
Jeremy Huffelmann
Mirek Stiles
Karim Fanous
Jack Fryer
James Healy
Jackie Alway
Dominika Dronska
Alex Doherty
Steve Kelly
David Hawkes
 

REDD Mentors

In addition to its board, the REDD Incubator has an extensive team of mentors and contributors with a wide range of skills from across Abbey Road, Universal Music and the wider music industries. This enables us to tailor each collaboration to the needs of each founder and business. We are proud to list our first set of official mentors below, who we work with very closely to help nurture our startups and release the next generation of sonic technology.

Craig O'Boyle
Jane Dyball
Julien Civange
Paul Smernicki
 

Programme Benefits

 

Finance Network

Ascension Ventures
UK Business Angels Association
Seedrs
Lean Square
Edition Capital
Seedcamp
Rooks Nest Ventures
C4 Ventures
Station 12
Heywood & Sons
Blackwood Capital Partners
 

Contact Us

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Abbey Road Studios

3 Abbey Road
London
NW8 9AY
UK

Please note that Abbey Road is a working studio and business and as such, is not open to the general public for visits or tours. For information on vacancies and internships in the UK, please visit the Universal Music website.