Photo Credit: Song Sleuth
Epidemic Sound acquires music recognition tech company Song Sleuth to help revolutionize music monetization in user generated content.
The world’s leading soundtracking platform, Epidemic Sound, has announced the acquisition of Song Sleuth, the music recognition technology company specializing in identifying and monetizing music used in user-generated content (UGC). The deal marks the launch of Aentidote, a new service under the Epidemic Sound Group, designed to help platforms pay out more accurately to artists and rights holders globally for the use of their music across online platforms.
This marks Epidemic Sound’s third major acquisition in as many years, after AP Records (now Overtone Studios) in 2022, and Soundly in 2023. All three strategic moves further solidify the company’s foothold in music licensing and the creator economy.
Aentidote combines Song Sleuth’s AI technology with Epidemic Sound’s industry expertise to identify music usage that traditional detection systems struggle to find—including remixes, covers, and live recordings. Offering a reported identification success rate of up to 95%, Aentidote is poised as the most comprehensive UGC music usage tracking and monetization service available.
“From day one, our mission has been to create a win-win situation for everyone involved in this rapidly evolving creator economy,” said Oscar Höglund, CEO and Co-Founder of Epidemic Sound. “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.”
Song Sleuth’s technology has already helped its clients achieve a significant uplift in content identification, highlighting existing challenges for rights holders to track and monetize their work online. With creation and consumption of UGC expected to surge (Goldman Sachs predicts the total addressable market of the creator economy will approach half-a-trillion dollars by 2027), the future holds increasing opportunities for rights holders, the industry, and artists to capture the full value of their work.
“The complexity of music use across a plethora of digital platforms both officially distributed and user-generated requires a different approach,” said Jordan Gross, CEO of Song Sleuth. “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.”
After strong financial results in 2024, Epidemic Sound is doubling down on its commitment to innovation in music monetization. The company is building on initiatives like its soundtrack bonus, 50/50 streaming royalty split, and now, offering a new level of transparency and fairness in UGC monetization with Aentidote.
Content shared from www.digitalmusicnews.com.