Photo Credit: Maraisea
XdMind opens up catalogs to AI-powered music sync in dynamic environments, a potentially lucrative development for IP owners. Adapting to user preferences, the technology selects the best music for video, film, and gaming — auto-modifying tracks to fit into contextual sequences.
Billions have been thrown at music catalogs over the past few years. Now, the industry is grappling with the difficult work of monetizing and growing those catalogs, especially as topline valuations are showing signs of easing.
So what’s the solution to this riddle? One potential answer is coming from XdMind, whose AI-powered technology is crafted exclusively for music. With intelligent, AI-powered matching, producers no longer need to sift through thousands of songs to find the perfect match for their specific video. Once a catalog is supplied to XdMind, AI deploys and extends assets with an end-to-end solution, triggering an auto-selection of music for TV scenes, film, games, and other dynamic formats.
The company calls this ‘Phantom Sync,’ and envisions a dynamic process that will shuttle tens of millions of songs into visual media sequences, even tailored to specific gamers.
Once a hand-in–glove match is made, the track is further adapted to fit into a specific scene. Music can intensify for action and thrill, and mellow down for calmer sequences. Sections of songs can also be extended or chopped up dynamically to suit video content. This auto-modification of music enhances gaming and video experiences, creating a shortcut to wider applications for music catalogs. Just recently, XdMind joined forces with DMN to further accelerate adoption of this disruptive technology.
To date, most of the discussions surrounding AI and music have been dystopian and scary. But players like XdMind are painting a less terrifying picture of AI applications within the music industry.
Despite groundbreaking developments in artificial intelligence, the spotlight remains on AI’s scary ability to replace human songwriters and composers for good. But following dramatic changes in the music licensing space, XdMind has a less world-dominating ambition: to become an AI-powered facilitator for higher sync opportunities and catalog earnings.
Looming technological threats are never easy, especially those of this magnitude. But ask around the industry, and the opportunities are equally exciting. That includes assistive AI, which broadly refers to the ability of AI to enhance the creative and recording process. It also includes areas like sync, which have always struggled with a mathematically overwhelming matching problem.
According to Linda Bernardi, CEO and cofounder of XdMind, the emerging new world of music requires new methods of sync. “It’s time we rethink the notion of sync and accept new interpretations of it. A song is synced to video only for a few seconds; then we move on to another song. This brings tens of millions of songs from catalogs to games and video.”
Bernardi further added, “This creates a massive new monetization model for IP owners.”
Initially, XdMind’s adaptive AI technology GameDJ was deployed within popular mobile games such as Subway Surfers and Candy Crush. By intelligently fitting specific sections of songs — and also subtly modifying those songs — GameDJ aligns the action to music and enhances the in-game experience. So instead of millions of gamers listening to the same music, or muting sound to listen to their own playlists, AI tailors the music according to user preferences and nuances of the game.
With the global gaming industry valued at more than $300 billion, and mobile gaming spawning hundreds of millions of new gamers over the past few years alone, XdMind is unlocking a potentially large opportunity for catalog owners.
Moreover, we’re living in the middle of a massive app boom. App Annie’s latest data reported that a record 230 billion apps were downloaded in 2021, with total app spending surging 19% in 2021 to $170 billion. Global consumer spending on mobile games alone reached $116 billion in 2021.
Bernardi believes AI-powered music sync technology creates a ‘win-win-win-win’ circle, with the end users, artists, music IP owners, and video platforms coming out ahead.
With the value of IP collections showing signs of dropping after a major boom, owners are on the lookout for ways to employ more of their catalogs more efficiently to maximize valuations.
One happy result of tapping AI could be that lesser-known songs find greater traction and broader use. According to Bernardi, XdMind is deploying and matching far more music assets that aren’t hits, and don’t rank within the top 5-10% of an artist’s collection. “AI is about moving lots of music, including lesser-known gems, into the world. We’re delighting end users with personalized music.”
For Bernardi, the goal has always been to reveal a brand-new possibility in the music licensing arena. “This disruption will change how music will reach and be consumed by the billions of end users out there. XdMind is playing a front-and-center role in this.”
Since XdMind runs alongside games and apps, no integration or updates are required. Without extensive setup or app updates, the goal is to create an instant contextual adaptation of music to match video sequencing.
XdMind’s technology also makes sense for new arenas like virtual worlds.
Opportunities include the emerging metaverse, where action sequences will be highly unpredictable and dynamic. Web3 applications, by default, will require music that adapts to scenes and is contextually coherent. Further broadening the reach of music catalogs, these web3 and metaverse applications could increase the overall value of IP assets.
According to Bernardi, “We’re not just moving faster, but we’re enabling the impossible. Our passion is to enable the music industry to innovate and drive the music industry forward. We see AI as the vehicle to enable the impossible!”