Swedish Acquisition of Song Sleuth
The Swedish company Epidemic Sound has acquired Song Sleuth, a startup specializing in artificial intelligence music recognition. This acquisition aims to tackle one of the music industry’s longstanding challenges: tracking and monetizing songs used in user-generated online content.
Launch of Aentidote Service
Epidemic Sound announced that this acquisition will facilitate the launch of a new service called Aentidote, which will focus on identifying unclaimed and retained royalties from remixes, covers, and live recordings. This initiative addresses what the industry refers to as the music “black box” of unexpected revenue.
Epidemic Sound claims that Aentidote fuses Song Sleuth‘s AI technology with its extensive experience in music tracking, boasting an identification success rate of up to 95%.
This acquisition, announced on April 29, marks the third significant purchase by Epidemic Sound in three years, following its acquisition of AP Records (now Overon Studios) in 2022 and the sound effects platform Reasonably in 2023.
The financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. To date, Epidemic Sound has raised 476 million dollars, according to data from Tracxn. Its largest funding round was a 450 million dollars raise in March 2021, led by Blaxtone Growth and Equation, which valued the company at 1.4 billion dollars.
Founded in 2009 by five Swedish entrepreneurs, Epidemic Sound claims to provide a “100% carefree catalog of music and sound effects belonging to IP.” In 2024, the company’s revenue surged 29% year to 1.921 billion Swedish crowns (approximately 181.62 million US dollars at the average exchange rate for 2024), accompanied by a 150% year increase in EBITDA to 147 million SEK (around 13.9 million dollars).
Epidemic Sound recently reported that the soundtracks featuring its music are now garnering 3 billion views on YouTube and TikTok daily, with YouTube alone accounting for 2.3 billion views each day.
“From the very first day, our mission was to create a win-win situation for everyone who participated in this rapidly developing economy of the Creator.”
Oscar Hogland, Epidemic Sound
Oscar Hogland, CEO and co-founder of Epidemic Sound, emphasized, “From the very beginning, our mission was to create a win-win scenario for everyone involved in this evolving Creator economy. We developed a platform that empowers artists, generating over three billion daily plays across platforms like TikTok and YouTube. By integrating our expertise with the advanced Song Sleuth technologies, we aim to deliver even greater value to the broader creator industry, equipping music owners with powerful tools for tracking usage and ensuring fair compensation.”
This acquisition comes at a time when the creator economy is rapidly expanding, with Goldman Sachs estimating it could reach “half a trillion dollars by 2027.”
Jordan Gross, CEO of Song Sleuth, added: “The complexities of using music across various digital platforms, both officially distributed and user-generated, necessitate a new approach.”
“The difficulty of using music on many digital platforms both officially distributed and generated by the user requires a different approach.”
Jordan Gross, Song Sleuth
Gross further stated: “By partnering with Epidemic Sound, we are scaling our vision to deliver unprecedented clarity and control throughout the music ecosystem, providing platforms with increasingly accurate identification systems while offering artists, labels, and publishers the assurance that their work is recognized and compensated.”
Epidemic Sound indicated that this acquisition aligns with its strategy for music monetization. The company has been focused on developing more monetization opportunities for its creators, such as introducing a soundtrack bonus and a 50/50 royalty split for music streamed on DSPs.
In 2024, the total bonus pool for the company’s soundtrack initiative reached 2.9 million dollars, up from 2.5 million dollars the previous year. This year, the bonus pool is projected at 3.5 million dollars.
Epidemic Sound acquires AI startup Song Sleuth to tackle music’s ‘black box’ problem
