Feels Music Messaging App Turns Conversation Into Song

Anthony “Tony” Seyler spent more than 20 years as executive marketer at Interscope Records before he decided to build something of his own. That something is Feels Music Messaging, a free app that lets people send bundled packages of lyrics, images, audio clips, and music video segments instead of the usual awkward screenshot forwarded from one platform to another.

The app launched with licensing deals already in place from Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment Inc., and Warner Music Group Corp. That’s not a small thing. It means users had access to millions of tracks from the moment the app went live, without hunting for workarounds or bumping into paywalls.

Seyler’s background is what shapes the product’s entire premise. He worked under Universal Music Group at Interscope Records for more than 20 years, and he co-produced the Emmy-nominated documentary “Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry.” He knows the music industry from the inside, and he’s not shy about saying what drove him to start Feels Music.

“This company, in many ways, is my love letter back to the music business that’s given me an incredible life,” he said.

The core idea isn’t complicated. It’s a communication tool. Not a playlist app, not a streaming competitor. When someone can’t find the words, they find the song. Feels Music packages that song with visual and audio context, then sends it as a linked bundle that actually works when it arrives on the other end.

That last part matters more than it sounds.

Anyone who’s tried sharing music across different platforms knows what typically happens: a link that requires a subscription, a screenshot that doesn’t play, a clip that gets cut off. Feels Music’s format is designed to get around that fragmentation entirely, wrapping everything into a single shareable unit that works regardless of which service the recipient uses.

Seyler talked to the LA Business Journal about where the concept came from. He pointed to decades of work placing songs in commercials and television episodes, watching music move people in ways that words alone couldn’t.

“Whether I was putting a Black Eyed Peas song in a car commercial that made you want to buy a car, or I was putting a Snow Patrol song at the end of a ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ episode that made you want to cry, I realized that a lot of my work in music was utilizing music to deliver emotion,” he said.

That’s the app’s DNA. Music isn’t decoration inside Feels Music. It’s the actual message.

There’s a discovery angle here too, and it’s arguably as important as the messaging function. The app includes a page where independent and lesser-known artists can surface alongside the major-label catalog. The idea is that one shared song can pull new listeners toward a musician they didn’t know existed before they opened that message. “We built this product to also break records and be an incredible platform for discovery,” he said.

What backs that promise up is the royalty tracking system built into the linked format. Because each bundle travels as a tracked link rather than a copied file, every play can be logged. That means artists get paid when their music gets sent and heard, not just when someone streams it directly. The Music Modernization Act established the broader legal framework for how digital royalties work, and Feels Music’s architecture is designed to operate inside that system.

For smaller musicians, that distinction isn’t trivial. Getting surfaced in a discovery feed is one thing. Getting compensated every time someone forwards your song in a conversation is another category of exposure entirely.

Seyler didn’t come to this project without history in the business. He didn’t build it from outside looking in. He co-produced an Emmy-nominated film. He spent 20 years placing music where it could change the mood of an entire room. That context sits behind the product’s positioning in a way that’s hard to fake.

The Business Journal coverage focused on how the app handles the licensing side. But the more interesting question, for Burbank and the broader San Fernando Valley creative economy, is whether Feels Music can actually do what Seyler says it can.

“We left with the intent to map music to our human thoughts, feelings and emotions, with the hope that we can help people connect on a deeper level and communicate in a new way,” he said.