Meet Smash, giving fans early access to new music directly from artists

From left: Robert Arnesson and Sebastian Geels, founder and CEO.

The problem

€0.04 is the most artists can make per click, even though they generate billions of views promoting new music on social media.

What Smash does

Smash lets artists sell new music directly to their biggest fans before it reaches streaming. The artist sets a minimum price and shares their Smash link on socials, and fans pay what they want to listen to the music before it's out on streaming.

Ane Brun and Delara already release on Smash. Delara's album Sjelen debuted at number one on the Norwegian album chart, and Smash has reached #3 in the music category of the Norwegian App Store.

How it started

You shouldn't have to please an algorithm and get lucky to make money from your music. I asked myself: what if we could mute the noise and let artists share music directly with fans? That's why I founded Smash.

Sebastian Geels, founder and CEO

Why this team

Founder and CEO Sebastian Geels spent 12 years helping some of the world's biggest artists cut through the noise as Head of International at Warner Music Group, working with artists like Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa and Coldplay. Before that, he worked for Universal Music Group and Amuse.

Robert Arnesson is a long-time builder and entrepreneur who previously co-founded Brite Payments. Before that, he was CTO at ZealID and Expansive Worlds.

Why Sting

“We're currently focusing a lot on sales. Sting helps us achieve that faster.”

Sebastian Geels, founder and CEO

Smash is one of 21 startups in Sting Core Fall 2026. Meet the rest of the cohort in Meet the 21 startups joining Sting this autumn.