Universal Music Group want to help new music-based companies and innovators take off with a new accelerator initiative.

Universal Music Group (UMG) are helping companies to start out in the music industry and establish their presence. Hoping to help build the future of music and provide resources for innovation, UMG will work with music-based startups to develop their work and help fund their progression.

UMG will have an application process during which applied startups will gain some of Universal’s industry knowledge and expertise. Once a company is accepted it gets professional mentoring from Universal experts whilst accelerators help these startups in to progress their business and product with assistance in development and raising funding for innovative new products.

UMG plan to work with up to 10 ‘programs’ in their first year running their startup accelerator program. The first startups to be accelerated will feature Axel Springer’s Plug and Play – a media-focused accelerator based in Berlin, LeanSquare – a music technology accelerator launched by the Liege in Belgium, and MediaLab which runs programs for student and faculty entrepreneurs at New York-area universities who are interested in launching digital media start-ups.

UMG’s Executive Vice President of Digital Strategy, Michael Nash said: “UMG is launching the Accelerator Network to build on the company’s stellar track-record of supporting entrepreneurs around the world and licensing more than 400 digital services globally. By developing a robust network of accelerators, UMG will play a more central role in helping to support the next generation of entrepreneurs who are already hard at work to bring innovative ideas to market that will create exciting new experiences for artists and fans everywhere.”

Meanwhile UMG’s vice president of New Digital Business, Tuhin Roy said: “UMG has the potential to serve as a strategic bridge between the creative minds working in the epicenter of the entertainment industry and the immensely innovative start-up communities in entrepreneurial centers around the world. From this vantage point, UMG is uniquely positioned to help foster the next wave of innovative digital music start-ups, while also learning from these amazing entrepreneurs about new ways to apply digital technologies in our own businesses to benefit artists and labels.”