Home » MUSIIO, AN AI MUSIC COMPANY, HAS BEEN ACQUIRED BY SOUNDCLOUD.
Musiio, a Singapore-based Artificial Intelligence music curation startup formed in 2018, has been bought by SoundCloud.
TechCrunch broke the story first, reporting that SoundCloud plans to employ Musiio’s technology to improve its own music discovery skills in order to compete with Spotify.
The acquisition agreement’s terms have not been revealed.
The firm claims to have constructed AI that can “listen” to music at scale, and was co-founded by Hazel Savage, who formerly worked at Shazam, Pandora, and Universal Music.
According to Savage, Musiio’s technology “analyses full audio files” in order to “teach the AI to hunt for patterns,” as he stated to MBW in December 2020.
“You can use this approach to recreate anything the human ear can perceive, like as the BPM and genre, right down to how much of a hit something might be,” Savage continued.
“Our new system searches for hits, virality, talent, melodic familiarity, and a variety of other characteristics that define excellent music.”
In July 2021, Musiio received an undisclosed amount of funding, valuing the company at $10 million. This was an increase over the previous year’s $3.5 million.
Premiumbeat founder Francois Arbour and Paul Kempe, the owner of Tileyard Group, both contributed to the round of finance.
SoundCloud President Eliah Seton, according to TechCrunch, “believes that the potential of Musiio’s AI will generate particularly fascinating outcomes” on the music streaming site.
“SoundCloud is a one-of-a-kind business,” Seton told TechCrunch. Its unique market position as both a music-streaming service for fans and a business that provides services to artists sets it apart from other streamers.
“In other words, it’s the only platform where artists and listeners have a direct contact.”
“WE ARE HONORED TO PARTNER WITH HAZEL AND ARON AND WELCOME THE ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT TEAM OF INNOVATORS AT MUSIIO TO THE SOUNDCLOUD FAMILY.”
ELIAH SETON, SOUNDCLOUD
“SoundCloud hosts more music from more producers than any other platform in the planet,” Seton stated in a news statement.
“Acquiring Musiio accelerates our goal to better understand how music moves in a unique way, which is important to our success.”
“It’s an honor to work with Hazel and Aron, and we’re thrilled to welcome Musiio’s incredible team of innovators to the SoundCloud family.”
“I AM INCREDIBLY PROUD THAT AFTER 4 YEARS OF BUILDING MUSIIO WE ARE NOW PART OF SOUNDCLOUD.”
HAZEL SAVAGE, MUSIIO
“SoundCloud is not only an iconic household name but also an artist forward business that I believe is the future of the modern, holistic music industry,” said Hazel Savage, CEO of Musiio.
“I’m ecstatic that Musiio is now a part of SoundCloud after four years of development.”
In February 2020, SiriusXM announced a $75 million investment in SoundCloud.
In February, the music streaming platform announced a joint venture with Solid Foundation, QC Media Holdings’ management and creative services arm, to establish “unique A&R programs for selected artists, including development, distribution, marketing, and artist services,” according to a press statement.
