As user-generated content explodes, identifying who owns the music within remixes and covers becomes increasingly complex, leaving potential royalties on the table. Now, Epidemic Sound's acquisition of Song Sleuth aims to tackle this with AI, promising fairer payouts for artists in the chaotic digital landscape. The deal includes the launch of Aentidote, a new service under the Epidemic Sound Group designed to improve how platforms track and pay for music use online.
AI targets the unfindable: Aentidote combines Song Sleuth’s AI technology with Epidemic Sound’s industry knowledge to identify music usage that traditional detection systems often miss, specifically focusing on remixes, covers, and live recordings. The service boasts a reported identification success rate of up to 95%, positioning it as a potentially powerful tool for rights holders struggling to monetize their work effectively across various platforms.
A push for fairer payouts: The core goal, according to the companies, is to enable more accurate payments from platforms to artists and rights holders globally. Epidemic Sound CEO and Co-founder Oscar Höglund stated, "From day one, our mission has been to create a win-win situation for everyone involved in this rapidly evolving creator economy." Aentidote aims to provide rights holders with better tools to track usage and ensure payment, while supporting platforms with scalable identification.
Addressing digital complexity: The sheer volume and variety of music use online, particularly modified versions in UGC, present significant tracking challenges. "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... giving artists, labels, and publishers confidence that their work is being both found and rewarded."