Amadeus Code, the AI songwriting assistant, has raised 200m Japanese Yen (approximately $1.8m/£1.4m) US) to support the development of its AI music generation platform. The Series A round was led by VC firm World Innovation Lab, whose general partner and co-founder, Masataka Matsumoto, will join Amadeus Code’s board.

“We’re thrilled to find others in the tech world as excited by the prospects of AI in music and creativity as we are,” said co-founder and COO of Amadeus Code, Taishi Fukuyama. “We welcome the support and insight of WiL.”

Amadeus Code is an AI-powered songwriting assistant. It breaks melodies down into their constituent parts (‘licks’) and transforms them into data. By eschewing more traditional methods of musical information transfer – the score and MIDI, for example – the company claims to have created a system to generate the kind of endless stream of melody Mozart proclaimed ran through his head.

The app has grown from a simple melody generator to an engine that can create chord changes, basslines, and beats based on user preferences and a library of popular tracks. More new features will be added later this year.

“Recently, AI technology has been adopted in various fields, and like the Amadeus Code, the music industry is no exception,” said Matsumoto. “In the music industry, which has long been called (sic) for a change in the business model, the company believes that its activities will be a new path. I think that I want to support them trying to challenge the global market from the time of foundation, making use of our global knowledge and the network of Japan-US.”