A Gen Z-focused music social app called Airbuds just closed a $5 million funding round from Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six, hitting 5 million monthly active users in the process. The San Francisco startup has cracked something that Apple and Spotify haven't - turning music streaming into effortless social expression through smartphone widgets.
Airbuds is quietly eating Apple and Spotify's lunch with Gen Z. The music social app just announced a $5 million Series A from Seven Seven Six, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian's early-stage fund, as user numbers hit 5 million monthly actives. That's impressive traction for a startup that's cracked the code on something music giants have repeatedly failed at - making social sharing feel effortless. The app has racked up 15 million total downloads with 1.5 million people opening it daily, according to app intelligence firm Appfigures. Users are clearly hooked, with 96% positive ratings over the past month across 9,400-plus reviews. Co-founder Gilles Poupardin told TechCrunch that the secret sauce is removing friction entirely. "You just connect your Spotify, and then every time you're going to listen to something, it's going to be shared on Airbuds in real time," he explained. The widget-centric approach lets friends see what you're streaming without any manual posting or playlist curation - a stark contrast to Apple's disastrous Ping experiment that crashed and burned in 2012. Apple tried again with Connect, aimed at artist-fan interactions, but that also got axed. Spotify has been pushing social features like TikTok-style feeds, podcast comments, and messaging capabilities, but hasn't nailed the authenticity factor that resonates with teens. The difference is that Airbuds started with social as the foundation, not a bolt-on feature. Around 30% of users engage beyond just passive consumption, customizing their "Space" profiles with favorite artists, lyrics, and photos. "The streamers gave us access to 100 million songs, but nobody really cracked the identity piece, the self-expression piece," Poupardin said. The app's core demographic of high schoolers and college students can react to friends' music with emojis, stickers, or background-removed selfies. There's even a "ghost mode" for private listening and experimental features like school-based music discovery. Poupardin and co-founder Gawen Arab aren't first-time founders - they previously built , and a voice-controlled speaker that predated Amazon's Echo. Arab also spent time at Zenly, the location app that . That experience shows in Airbuds' viral mechanics - the app gates some features behind friend invites, similar to early Clubhouse or BeReal strategies. You need to invite friends to see more than your top 3 artists in weekly recaps, but Poupardin insists it's not just growth hacking. "The app only really works if you add your friends," he said. The $5 million round brings Airbuds' total funding to $10 million, with backing from Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel, and Night Capital. The startup supports major streaming platforms including , , SoundCloud, and Amazon Music. With fresh capital, the team is eyeing expansion into other streaming verticals, artist-to-fan connections, and features targeting older demographics. They're also testing subscription monetization, though the core widget experience remains free. The timing feels right for a social music upstart. repeated social failures show how hard it is to retrofit community features onto utilitarian apps, while social push feels forced rather than organic. Airbuds sidesteps that by making sharing the default behavior - your friends see what you're playing automatically, creating ambient awareness that feels natural to a generation raised on constant social updates.
