Epidemic Sound acquires AI startup Song Sleuth to tackle music’s ‘black box’ problem - Music Business Worldwide

Sweden-headquartered Epidemic Sound has acquired Song Sleuth, an AI music recognition startup, betting on AI to solve one of the music industry’s most persistent challenges: tracking and monetizing songs used in user-generated content online.

Epidemic Sound said the acquisition paves the way for the launch of a new service called Aentidote aimed at identifying unclaimed and undistributed royalties from remixes, covers, and live recordings, part of what the industry calls the music “black box” of unattributed revenue.

Epidemic Sound says Aentidote combines Song Sleuth’s AI technology with Epidemic Sound’s industry expertise to track music usage, claiming an identification success rate of up to 95%.

The acquisition, announced Tuesday (April 29), marks Epidemic Sound’s third major purchase in three years, following its acquisition of AP Records (now Overtone Studios) in 2022 and sound effects platform Soundly in 2023.

Financial terms of the Song Sleuth purchase were not disclosed. Epidemic Sound has raised $476 million to date, according to data from Tacxn. Its largest funding round was a $450 million raise in March 2021, led by Blackstone Growth and EQT. That transaction valued the company at $1.4 billion.

Founded in 2009 by five Swedish entrepreneurs, Epidemic Sound said it offers “only 100% IP-owned, worry-free catalog of music and sound effects.” In 2024, the company’s revenues jumped 29% YoY to 1.921 billion Swedish kronor, or USD $181.62 million at the average exchange rate for 2024, with EBITDA rising 150% YoY to SEK 147 million ($13.9 million).

Epidemic Sound recently reported that videos soundtracked with its music now receive 3 billion views on YouTube and TikTok per day, with YouTube alone accounting for 2.3 billion views per day.

“From day one, our mission has been to create a win-win situation for everyone involved in this rapidly evolving creator economy.”

Oscar Höglund, Epidemic Sound

Oscar Höglund, CEO and Co-founder of Epidemic Sound, said: “From day one, our mission has been to create a win-win situation for everyone involved in this rapidly evolving creator economy.

‘We’ve built a platform that helps artists thrive, generating over three billion daily plays across platforms like TikTok and YouTube.

“With Aentidote, we’re pairing that expertise with Song Sleuth’s cutting-edge technology to bring even greater value to the broader creator industry — giving music rights holders powerful tools to track usage and ensure they get paid, while supporting both creators and platforms with scalable, accurate identification solutions.”

The Song Sleuth acquisition comes amid the booming creator economy that Goldman Sachs estimates will reach “half a trillion dollars by 2027.”

Jordan Gross, CEO of Song Sleuth, added: “The complexity of music use across a plethora of digital platforms both officially distributed and user-generated, requires a different approach.”

“The complexity of music use across a plethora of digital platforms both officially distributed and user-generated, requires a different approach.”

Jordan Gross, Song Sleuth

Added Gross: “By joining forces with Epidemic Sound, we’re scaling our vision to offer unprecedented clarity and control across the entire music ecosystem, providing platforms with ever more accurate identification systems, while giving artists, labels, and publishers confidence that their work is being both found and rewarded.”

Epidemic Sound says the acquisition is part of its sharpened focus on music monetization. The company has worked to create more monetization opportunities for its creators, for instance by instituting a soundtrack bonus and a 50/50 royalty split for music streamed on DSPs.

For 2024, the total bonus pool for the company’s soundtrack bonus was $2.9 million, up from $2.5 million the year before. For this year, the bonus pool is worth $3.5 million.

Music Business Worldwide