A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya is a startup offering fun music apps without any AI prompting
A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya is a startup offering fun music apps without any AI prompting. 25% off tickets now Back by popular demand: Save up to $300 on Disrupt Close Image Credits:A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya Apps A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya is a startup from a former Spotify leader for making music apps Ivan Mehta 6:55 AM PDT · September 14, 2026 As AI rages on, new startups are creating tools for people to create music using generative AI prompts in the style of any artist they want.
What happened
A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya, a startup that sounds more like an indie band name, is focused on releasing a series of small apps that let you play around with sounds and vocals. Topics AI, Apps, boxgroup, Music, Spotify, Startups When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. ZonoozyImage Credits:A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya “I think when I looked at emergent behaviors and younger audiences, like everyone’s growing up playing with culture through games, through filters, through creation tools.
The common theme between all of these apps or websites is interacting with different elements to create music or modify sound. A Vinyl Bar in Shibuya is also working on a multiplayer version, which would let users remix songs with others. The story title was changed because, at the time of testing last month, there were no prompt-based features in the startup’s apps. Former Spotify exec's company releases experimental "singles" that involves users in music making.
The wider picture
Prior to that, he founded a video clipping and remixing startup called Bubbl, which was acquired by Cricket Media. He thought that while streaming solved the access problem, most of the interaction with music was still around consumption. founder Máuhan M. And I just felt like there was an opportunity to empower people to do something similar with music,” he told TechCrunch. The startup releases these experiments like “singles” that are part of an album.
Drops is about placing plaques in a pattern to deflect marbles falling down, which creates musical notes. Sampler is a website that turns YouTube videos into music samplers based on beats of different parts of the songs. This lets you place musical instruments and effects in a grid to create different mixes of a base song. Zonoozy said that it is making an informed choice not to infuse AI into every part of these apps.
What has been reported
“AI is obviously extraordinarily powerful, but I think we just don’t necessarily believe that the future of music is simply generation, like song generation via AI. This year, the company aims to release a “musical sandbox mixer” product that would let users play around with different elements of music-making, including being able to create instruments. The company added prompt-based features more recently to its apps. Like films about fictional pop stars that feature unconvincing music, it doesn’t help that the quickfire résumé of Lenore’s career only half-conveys her magnetism.
A one-time beauty influencer called Veronica Brand, she later graduates to more extreme performance art-type stunts, such as livestreaming her miscarriage; a move that, spliced without her knowledge into a children’s TV broadcast, forced her into hiding. Not just Max, but also his colleague Sam (Sam Macdonald), a brash interloper outraged to find he was nothing special to Lenore and who turns up at Max’s door offering exclusive footage of her. Ward can clearly diagnose our dislocated mindset – but without him finding an idiom to match, it seems unlikely that the average TikTok-addled scrollhead will have the patience to hear the final judgment.
Disrupt 2026: OpenAI, Anthropic, Replit, and more take over 6 industry stages.
What happens next
5 million pre-seed round from Mantis VC, SV Angel, BoxGroup, Quiet Capital, Remarkable Ventures, Common Metal, Gold House, Liquid 2 Ventures, Breakers VC, Collaborative Fund, Systemic Ventures, and former Spotify chief content and advertising business officer, Dawn Ostroff, who joined the company as an advisor. Zonoozy, who was the former head of innovation at Spotify. Zonoozy, who left Spotify in 2024, said that he always wanted to go back to building something of his own. For instance, Speed Surfer is a Chrome extension that changes the speed and filter of sound playing in your browser window.
Usersound is a website where you can create an “audio” username with each letter representing a note. Stacks is a stem player where you can create mixes by turning bars on or off in a 3×3 grid. The company’s more ambitious product is an iOS app called bop.
The report has been compiled by The Daily Waves using information reported across techcrunch.com, theguardian.com. Details are presented according to the information available at the time of publication and may change as authorities, organisers or other relevant parties provide updates.