Hook is a social platform where fans remix, mash up, and post short-form videos using licensed tracks from major artists, with both the fan and the original artist earning when the clip travels across TikTok, Instagram, and Hook itself. The app pairs a mobile creation tool (filters built from stems by a Grammy-winning producer, pitch and tempo controls, automatic beat-syncing to imported video clips) with rights deals that make the resulting remixes monetizable instead of muted or taken down. It is aimed at music fans who already drive a large share of user-generated music on social feeds but see none of the revenue, and at artists and labels looking for a sanctioned alternative to unlicensed AI generation.
This launch positions Hook explicitly against generative AI music tools, framing the product as a way to compensate the humans whose catalogs would otherwise be scraped for training. The company has assembled catalog and partnership relationships that back up the pitch, including a content deal with Downtown Music that paves the way for millions of licensed recordings from Downtown's catalogue to be added to Hook's library , and it has raised institutional capital from music-savvy backers, with a $10 million Series A led by Khosla Ventures following an earlier seed extension that included Kygo's Palm Tree Crew and Imaginary Ventures.
Hook is led by founder and CEO Gaurav Sharma, formerly COO of JioSaavn , alongside CPO Simmi Singh, previously with Spotify and JioSaavn . The launch is paired with a creator contest offering reposts from featured artists and cash prizes for the top remixes made on the app, a push to seed the network with content at the moment the "artist-paying" positioning is likely to resonate with both creators and rights holders watching the AI debate.
Comments (12)
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P
Priya VaidyaSep 4, 2026
The moral high ground opener is doing a lot of work here. Show me the payout mechanic on day one or it's just Spotify with a conscience.
K
kwame.txtSep 4, 2026
Tagline swing: 'Hook. Music that pays you back.' You're welcome, keep the equity.
B
Boris L.Sep 4, 2026
Video cuts hard at 0:14 right when the founder's about to explain the payout model. Whoever edited this owes us four more seconds.
M
makotoSep 4, 2026
How does the split actually work when a track goes viral through a remix of a remix? Attribution graphs get spicy fast.
R
Renata OkonkwoSep 4, 2026
Music social has been a graveyard since Turntable. Curious what the retention curve looks like at week 4, not week 1.
D
Dev ToshiSep 4, 2026
Two engineers and a designer could ship the MVP of this in a weekend. The hard part is the label conversations, and that's a ten year problem.
P
Petra LindqvistSep 4, 2026
The tweet copy leads with villains before heroes, which is a bold choice. Works for me, but half the replies are gonna be 'name names.'
O
Omar HaddadSep 4, 2026
Built something similar at a big blue app in 2019, we called it Creator Boost. Shelved because payouts under a dollar break the payment rails.
Y
yukiSep 4, 2026
That thumbnail is too dark for the timeline. The waveform loses all its shape at mobile size, would kill for a warmer accent color.
A
Ana FernándezSep 4, 2026
One more thing for the roadmap: let fans pre-buy shares of a song before it drops. Turns discovery into a bet, not a scroll.
C
Chuka EzeSep 4, 2026
Got a former audio infra lead sitting on the bench who's obsessed with royalty pipelines. DMs open if you're staffing up.
M
mireSep 4, 2026
'World's first social platform for music that pays' is a big claim in a category with a lot of tombstones. The graveyard is the moat if you survive it.
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Hook is a social platform where fans remix, mash up, and post short-form videos using licensed tracks from major artists, with both the fan and the original artist earning when the clip travels across TikTok, Instagram, and Hook itself. The app pairs a mobile creation tool (filters built from stems by a Grammy-winning producer, pitch and tempo controls, automatic beat-syncing to imported video clips) with rights deals that make the resulting remixes monetizable instead of muted or taken down. It is aimed at music fans who already drive a large share of user-generated music on social feeds but see none of the revenue, and at artists and labels looking for a sanctioned alternative to unlicensed AI generation. This launch positions Hook explicitly against generative AI music tools, framing the product as a way to compensate the humans whose catalogs would otherwise be scraped for training. The company has assembled catalog and partnership relationships that back up the pitch, including a content deal with Downtown Music that paves the way for millions of licensed recordings from Downtown's catalogue to be added to Hook's library , and it has raised institutional capital from music-savvy backers, with a $10 million Series A led by Khosla Ventures following an earlier seed extension that included Kygo's Palm Tree Crew and Imaginary Ventures. Hook is led by founder and CEO Gaurav Sharma, formerly COO of JioSaavn , alongside CPO Simmi Singh, previously with Spotify and JioSaavn . The launch is paired with a creator contest offering reposts from featured artists and cash prizes for the top remixes made on the app, a push to seed the network with content at the moment the "artist-paying" positioning is likely to resonate with both creators and rights holders watching the AI debate.
Comments (12)
The moral high ground opener is doing a lot of work here. Show me the payout mechanic on day one or it's just Spotify with a conscience.
Tagline swing: 'Hook. Music that pays you back.' You're welcome, keep the equity.
Video cuts hard at 0:14 right when the founder's about to explain the payout model. Whoever edited this owes us four more seconds.
How does the split actually work when a track goes viral through a remix of a remix? Attribution graphs get spicy fast.
Music social has been a graveyard since Turntable. Curious what the retention curve looks like at week 4, not week 1.
Two engineers and a designer could ship the MVP of this in a weekend. The hard part is the label conversations, and that's a ten year problem.
The tweet copy leads with villains before heroes, which is a bold choice. Works for me, but half the replies are gonna be 'name names.'
Built something similar at a big blue app in 2019, we called it Creator Boost. Shelved because payouts under a dollar break the payment rails.
That thumbnail is too dark for the timeline. The waveform loses all its shape at mobile size, would kill for a warmer accent color.
One more thing for the roadmap: let fans pre-buy shares of a song before it drops. Turns discovery into a bet, not a scroll.
Got a former audio infra lead sitting on the bench who's obsessed with royalty pipelines. DMs open if you're staffing up.
'World's first social platform for music that pays' is a big claim in a category with a lot of tombstones. The graveyard is the moat if you survive it.