{"id":253681,"date":"2026-03-24T15:00:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T15:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=253681"},"modified":"2026-03-24T10:46:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T10:46:37","slug":"music-messaging-app-feels-which-counts-eminem-manager-paul-rosenberg-among-its-investors-launches-with-licensing-deals-from-all-three-majors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/music-messaging-app-feels-which-counts-eminem-manager-paul-rosenberg-among-its-investors-launches-with-licensing-deals-from-all-three-majors\/","title":{"rendered":"Music messaging app Feels, which counts Eminem manager Paul Rosenberg among its investors, launches with licensing deals from all three majors"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new music messaging app called Feels Music Messaging or Feels launched on iOS<\/a> and Android<\/a> on Tuesday (March 24), securing licensing agreements with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, <\/b>and Warner Music Group.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

The company also struck publishing deals with Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, <\/b>and Warner Chappell Music.<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

The licensing deals give the platform access to \u201cmillions of licensed tracks, videos and lyrics,\u201d Feels said in a press release.<\/p>\n

Paul<\/b> Rosenberg<\/b>, Eminem’s manager, is an early investor and board member, while venture firm Reign<\/b> Ventures<\/b> also backed the company.<\/p>\n

<\/div>
<\/div>
<\/div> <\/div> <\/p>\n

The app lets users send short-form audio and music video clips of up to 15 seconds, with lyrical overlays and customizable fonts and backgrounds, directly within texts, DMs, and group chats through a keyboard extension.<\/p>\n

Feels explained that the format is designed to function like a GIF that users can search for by artist, emotion, song title, and lyrics.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe\u2019re transforming music from a listening experience into an active form of connection and communication, one that creates new moments of discovery, engagement, and commercial opportunity for artists and rights holders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony<\/b> Seyler<\/b>, Feels Music Messaging<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Artists, songwriters and fans can use Feels to collaborate and create content to reach new audiences, the company said. Each \u201cFeels\u201d message generates earning potential for artists and songwriters, although specific royalty terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n

The platform uses machine learning and AI to map music, aiming \u201cto gather deep understanding of our users emotional musical intelligence,\u201d Feels said.<\/p>\n

Feels was founded by Anthony<\/b> (Tony) Seyler<\/b>, a two-time Grammy-nominated executive who spent over two decades at Interscope<\/b> Records<\/b>, where he served as EVP and built the label’s film, TV, and video game licensing divisions. He also helped launch BEATS by Dre<\/b>\u00a0under Jimmy<\/b> Iovine<\/b>, and produced the Billie Eilish<\/b> documentary The World’s A Little Blurry<\/i>, which received an Academy Award shortlist nomination.<\/p>\n

<\/div> <\/div> <\/p>\n

Tony<\/b> Seyler<\/b>, Founder & CEO of Feels Music Messaging, said: \u201cFeels is building a new lane for fans to connect with the music and artists they love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re transforming music from a listening experience into an active form of connection and communication, one that creates new moments of discovery, engagement, and commercial opportunity for artists and rights holders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a><\/i><\/a><\/figure>‘The way music makes us feel is what keeps bringing fans back to their favorite artists and their songs. With Feels, fans and artists have a new, unique way to develop and strengthen that bond.”<\/p>\n

Paul<\/b> Rosenberg<\/b>, Eminem’s manager<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Rosenberg said: “I’ve always been driven by the message and emotion that comes from music. The way music makes us feel is what keeps bringing fans back to their favorite artists and their songs. With Feels, fans and artists have a new, unique way to develop and strengthen that bond.”<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a><\/i><\/a><\/figure>“We welcome new and innovative commercial partners for our artists and songwriters, and look forward to working with Feels to showcase and amplify the role that music can play in how fans communicate and share socially.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael<\/b> Nash<\/b>, Universal Music Group<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Michael<\/b> Nash<\/b>, EVP & Chief Digital Officer at Universal Music Group<\/b>, said, \u201cAt UMG, we understand the importance and power of music and lyrics to drive culture, conversation, and community within music fans. We welcome new and innovative commercial partners for our artists and songwriters, and look forward to working with Feels to showcase and amplify the role that music can play in how fans communicate and share socially.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div> <\/div> <\/p>\n

Carletta<\/b> Higginson<\/b>, Chief Digital Officer & EVP, Warner<\/strong> Music<\/strong> Group<\/strong>, said: \u201cWe want music to be a seamless part of how fans connect every day. Feels creates a new way for them to express themselves, while opening up meaningful discovery and engagement opportunities for our artists.”<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a><\/i><\/a><\/figure>\u201cWe want music to be a seamless part of how fans connect every day. Feels creates a new way for them to express themselves, while opening up meaningful discovery and engagement opportunities for our artists.”<\/p>\n

Carletta<\/b> Higginson<\/b>, Warner Music Group<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The launch comes as Spotify<\/strong> also experiments with music-based messaging. The streaming giant\u00a0launched<\/a>\u00a0its direct messaging feature in August 2025, which according to the company, was meant to make sharing music and other content easier. In January, Spotify expanded<\/a> the feature to allow users to see what their friends are listening to in real-time and start shared listening sessions.<\/p>\n

Separately in February last year, Instagram added<\/a> a new music-sharing feature to its direct messaging service. The update builds upon Instagram\u2019s October 2024\u00a0partnership<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0Spotify<\/b>, which introduced the ability for users to save songs discovered on Instagram directly to their Spotify libraries with a single tap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The app, available globally on iOS and Android, lets users send short-form music video clips as messages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":253682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[135162,5656,135161,1537,3706,3351,129093,135163,269,648,418,5702],"class_list":["post-253681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-anthony-seyler","tag-carletta-higginson","tag-feels-music-messaging","tag-michael-nash","tag-paul-rosenberg","tag-sony-music-entertainment","tag-sony-music-publishing","tag-tony-seyler","tag-universal-music-group","tag-universal-music-publishing-group","tag-warner-music-group","tag-warner-chappell-music"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253681"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253714,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253681\/revisions\/253714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}