SoundCloud Acquires Music AI Software That Claims to Predict Hit Songs

Audio artificial intelligence Company Musiio has been acquired by SoundCloud. Musiio is a recognized AI music platform with the focus of “listening” to new music and purportedly identifying the hits. The acquisition which was announced on Tuesday via a statement by the company will see that SoundCloud sort through its immense library of amateur music and most importantly support “SoundCloud’s discovery experience.”

As SoundCloud lower the barrier to entry for amateur artists and flood platforms with new music, it may become even more challenging to identify and promote the good stuff. SoundCloud claims that Musiio has the ability to help users quickly sift through countless hours of music that don’t fit and pick out the songs that have been identified to have patterns and those characteristics that highlight them as chart-toppers

In a statement by SoundCloud President Eliah Seton “Acquiring Musiio accelerates our strategy to better understand how that music is moving in a proprietary way, which is critical to our success.”

Away from A&R which has gradually become a lucrative side of music creation, AI is slowly becoming an integral part of finding up-and-coming artists. In February, Music distribution platform Tunecore revealed its partnership with music startup Fwaygo, a platform that uses AI to match listeners with creators. Meanwhile, DIY music distributor DistroKid has been identified to have an AI bot named Dave, Dave is capable of reviewing tracks and ranking songs using certain qualities like “danceability.”

SoundCloud spokesperson has however declined to disclose how much was paid for the acquisition of the company, Musiio, although it was reportedly valued at $10 million last year. Musiio CEO Hazel Savage and CTO Aron Pettersson will continue on the board, while also serving as SoundCloud’s VPs of music intelligence and AI and machine learning, respectively. Musiio, which is based in Singapore, was founded in 2018 by British CEO Hazel Savage and Swedish CTO Aron Pettersson.