PRESS RELEASE

Cyanite acquires sample platform aptone to expand music AI services

• AI-powered music tagging and search firm Cyanite acquires AI-based sample platform aptone 
• The acquisition will allow Cyanite to drive international growth and expand its AI solutions for the music industry
• aptone co-founder Johannes Giani joins Cyanite’s board as Director of Information Technology

Berlin/Cologne/Mannheim, May 31, 2023 – Cyanite, one of the world’s leading AI companies for music analysis and recommendation, has acquired aptone, an AI-based service which allows music producers to classify and search samples. The acquisition will enable Cyanite to drive international growth and expand its AI solutions for the music industry.

Johannes Giani, one of the founders of aptone, will join the Cyanite board as Director of Information Technology with immediate effect. With his expertise in cloud-based system architecture, he will help Cyanite to further develop its technology and continue to enhance and expand the offering for Cyanite’s international customers such as BMG, Pond5, APM Music and RTL.

The acquisition of aptone will help Cyanite to take one step closer to achieving its vision of creating a universal intelligence that understands, indexes and recommends the world’s music. Cyanite’s technology will now be able to increase the accuracy with which it analyses and tags samples, which offer a growing opportunity for music publishers to maximise the monetisation of their catalogues. The integration will also allow Cyanite to improve its system architecture and scale its technology to increase the reliability of analysis of the millions of audio files on its platform.

Markus Schwarzer, CEO of Cyanite, said:
“I have been mentoring the aptone team for quite some time now and have always been impressed by their growth and technological finesse, and I’m delighted they will formally be part of Cyanite.  Johannes’ expertise in product management and system architecture will be a valuable addition to our team and he will help us provide our customers with the best and most reliable AI solutions. Johannes’ addition to the team comes at a crucial time – there has never been more music available than today; we need technology to help us to handle it. Our vision of a universal music intelligence has always been clear, and with this acquisition we will be able to advance this vision even further.”

Johannes Giani, Director of Information Technology at Cyanite, said:
“Through our ongoing contact with Cyanite, we have built a fruitful relationship of trust over many months. Now we are extremely excited to join forces and develop innovative solutions together in the future. By working together, we not only complement each other technologically, but also in terms of content. We believe that our combined expertise in AI, software and the music industry will create new opportunities to provide a unique offering to our customers – from creation to exploitation. I have spent three years with my co-founders Basti and Tim building up aptone, and we are extremely proud to be part of the Cyanite family which marks a successful end to our startup.”

aptone Co-founder Bastian Werner will continue his career at the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS), while Co-founder Tim Franken will take a career break.

Both Cyanite and aptone are music tech startups based in Germany. Cyanite emerged from the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg and aptone is supported by Gateway TH Köln.

The acquisition is effective immediately. aptone’s community and producers can sign up to a mailing list on the aptone website to be kept up to date.

ENDS

About Cyanite

Cyanite helps music companies turn their catalogs into their own personal Spotify – providing music libraries with the usability, transparency and functionality users have become accustomed to. 

From their headquarters in Mannheim, Germany, Cyanite’s team develops AI-powered music analysis and recommendation software that enables effective keywording and efficient music research based on it. This enables music, entertainment and advertising companies to quickly and cost-effectively deliver the right songs for their customers’ search queries based on keywords, reference titles or free text. 

Via API or no-code solution, Cyanite supports some of the most renowned and innovative players in the music, entertainment and advertising industries. These include production music libraries APM Music, Pond5 and Far Music (RTL), music publishers BMG, Nettwerk Music Group, Sugar Music and Schubert Music, and sound branding agencies amp sound branding, Antfood, Universal Music Solutions, and Human Worldwide. 

Cyanite’s vision is to become the universal music intelligence that understands, connects, and recommends the world’s music – an intelligence that can translate music into everything and everything into music.

Website: https://www.cyanite.ai/

Web App: https://app.cyanite.ai/register

API: https://api-docs.cyanite.ai/

LinkedIn: Cyanite.ai

Twitter: Cyanite.ai

About aptone

aptone is a cloud-based software service that allows music creators to better sort and use large sound collections more intuitively through artificial intelligence (AI).

With the help of aptone, music producers can automate the sorting of their sound collections through AI and make them easier to find. These collections consist of many small audio files, also called samples, which are used for sound compositions of various kinds. Samples can be found in the entire spectrum of the music business and range from personal music productions to sound backdrops in films.

Cyanite’s AI integration in Dequency will enhance discovery on web3 sync licensing platform.

AI-powered music tagging and search firm Cyanite launches Free Text Search which provides users with a completely new and intuitive way of searching for music

Los Angeles/Berlin, April 27, 2023 – Dequency has partnered with AI music tagging and recommendation engine Cyanite, with a view to enhancing discovery on its own decentralized music licensing marketplace.

Launched in 2019, with headquarters in Berlin and Mannheim, Cyanite develops algorithms for music analysis, tagging, search and discovery. The company’s goal is to help clients better understand their repertoire and unlock its full value with artificial intelligence. It has a broad client base across publishing, record labels, production music companies and music tech, with big names including BMG, Nettwerk, UMPG Music Solutions, RTL, Pond5, APM Music and many more.

Built on Algorand, Dequency’s marketplace is the only option for on-chain sync licensing for blockchain-native content such as motion-visual digital art, NFT projects, games, and metaverse productions. Analogous to Bitcoin’s trustless digital payments, Dequency eliminates third parties from music licensing transactions to increase speed of payment, reduce fees, and give control of the system to market participants.

The platform’s v1.0 launch in July last year created a two-sided marketplace, allowing any music rightsholder that owns both the recording and publishing rights of a track to license their music directly without an intermediary in between the transaction. Music rights owners that use the Dequency marketplace are also able to set their own licensing fees, making this a first of its kind proposition for an online sync platform.

This new partnership with Cyanite will make discovering new, original works on the Dequency platform for use in content easier than ever.

Cyanite CEO Markus Schwarzer said: “We are really happy to partner with Dequency as we bring together the strengths of blockchain and artificial intelligence to make original music easier to license in the metaverse. We see huge potential for the music industry to further diversify its revenue streams and are proud to contribute with our algorithms to provide the best possible music search experience.”

Dequency CEO Keatly Haldeman said: “We’re excited to bring Cyanite’s AI-enabled tagging to Dequency’s growing library of licensable music. Not only does this mean licensees can find the perfect track for their project, but also it enables them to find those ‘diamond in the rough’ tracks based off of their attributes — giving even more artists the chance to participate in the global market for sync. This is cutting edge technology for easy and accurate song recommendation that will benefit all Dequency users.”

About Cyanite

Cyanite helps music companies to turn their catalogues into their own personal Spotify – powering music libraries with the simplicity, visibility, and functionality to perform how they and their users expect them to.

From its offices located in Berlin and Mannheim, Cyanite builds powerful AI-based analysis and recommendation solutions to efficiently tag and search music. This enables music, entertainment and advertising companies to quickly and cost-effectively deliver the right songs for their customers’ search queries.

Cyanite supports some of the most renowned and innovative players in the music and advertising industry via API or no code solutions. Among the music companies using Cyanite are the production music libraries APM Music, Pond5 and Far Music (RTL), the music publishers BMG, Nettwerk Music Group, NEUBAU Music and Schubert Music, and the sound branding agencies amp sound branding, Universal Music Solutions, and Human Worldwide.

Cyanite’s vision is to become the universal intelligence that understands, connects and recommends the world’s music – an intelligence that can translate music into anything and anything into music.

About Dequency

Launched in 2022, Dequency is a web3-powered, decentralised marketplace for on-chain sync licensing, allowing music rightsholders and visual creators to connect, collaborate, and transact directly with one another quickly, efficiently and transparently.

Initially servicing blockchain-native content such as motion-visual digital art, NFT projects, games and metaverse productions, Dequency’s arrival has implications on the broader music licensing space, with its technology enabling unprecedented speed and control around transitions, usage and payment.

Dequency allows any music rightsholder that owns both the recording and publishing rights of a track to license their music directly to a licensee without an intermediary in between the transaction. Music rights owners are also able to set their own licensing fees, making this a first of its kind proposition for an online sync platform.

Website: https://www.cyanite.ai/

Web App: https://app.cyanite.ai/register

API: https://api-docs.cyanite.ai/

LinkedIn: Cyanite.ai

Twitter: Cyanite.ai

PRESS RELEASE

Cyanite launches technology that can find music based on full text for the first time

AI-powered music tagging and search firm Cyanite launches Free Text Search which provides users with a completely new and intuitive way of searching for music

Mannheim/Berlin, January 25, 2023 – Cyanite, a tech company with various software solutions in AI-powered music tagging and search, has launched the first search engine that can instantly translate complex text input into its closest musical equivalent. Similar to image creation services like Dall-E and Midjourney, users can now find matching music by telling the AI exactly what they need – in their own language and unbound to a prefixed set of keywords. 

Now, users can insert a full scene description, a synch briefing or just a hunch about a sound, and Cyanite’s Free Text Search will provide a list of suitable tracks. The search requests may be as complex as “A city lost to time, its buildings half buried by the jungle that has claimed it” or as simple as “Walking down a dusty highway”. 

The technology empowers any user – regardless of their music knowledge – to delve deeper into huge music libraries to discover the perfect music for a specific application such as a movie trailer or YouTube video, vastly reducing the complexity of music search. It also opens up new licensing opportunities for music companies to a far wider range of potential music buyers.  

Markus Schwarzer, CEO, Cyanite, says: “We are seeing a steep increase in audiovisual content creation – both professional as well as user generated. Music rights holders are bombarded with requests from both sides of the professional spectrum, from branding agencies to DIY content creators. They cannot possibly meet all of them in a timely manner with a consistent high quality. With Free Text Search, we provide music companies with a tool that catches the first wave by giving a variety of music choices to broad requests for users to drill down from – or very targeted music recommendations to specific requests.” 

Joey Goldberger, Sync Manager at Canadian music publishing group Nettwerk agrees: “We’ve been lucky to get early access to Cyanite’s new Free Text Search and in this short period of time, songs which we found through this super intuitive system have already gotten licensing requests and one successful sale. We are big fans.“

Free Text Search may be applied to choosing music for a wealth of scenarios, from library music, gaming, film, sonic branding and advertising, to new developments in areas such as the metaverse and Point of Sale (POS) and takes a step closer towards the company’s goal of creating a universal intelligence that understands, indexes and recommends the world’s music. 

Markus Schwarzer: “There is a lot of interest in AI-generated music, mainly because of its applicability for specific use cases like concentration, sleep, and so on. We believe this is partly down to music discovery for human-created music being too one-dimensional. With Free Text Search, we aim to put the spotlight back on human-created music, by applying the cutting edge of artificial intelligence to music catalogues.”

Jeroen Vreugdenhil is Managing Director of Brilliant Classics, a music label working with original classical recordings. He adds: “It’s a huge challenge to set up a new YouTube channel with playlists for specific activities and situations like studying, sleeping, and relaxing with 100,000 songs from our catalogue, which consists entirely of classical music. For that, we seamlessly integrated Cyanite’s new Free Text Search into our workflows and I can already say that it’s never been easier to search for suitable music. It empowers my team to tap into the very deep layers of our repertoire and realise its full potential.“

Next to Brilliant Classics and Nettwerk Music Group, music agency Marmoset Music, and independent production music library MediaTracks are using Free Text Search. At the same time, many of Cyanite’s global customers are evaluating integration with their existing libraries.

William Saunders, Director Media & Creative at MediaTracks, says: “Our team was blown away by Cyanite’s new Free Text Search as it offers an intuitive and easy way to start a music search by simply typing in what you are looking for. We will deeply integrate it into our workflows to faster and better answer our clients’ requests for music.“

Cyanite’s Free Text Search is based on the latest Transformer technology, which is also used for current image generators or ChatGPT, for example. Cyanite fed its transformer technology with complex musical descriptions e.g. from music reviews, to teach the AI to understand any kind of written text input. This input is then translated into suitable music. The decisive advantage of such a model is the fact that it learns free text instead of discrete classes, which allows semantic relationships to be recognized.

Anyone who wants to try out Free Text Search with a showcase database of Spotify, can register for free here for Cyanite’s Web App and access the search via this link.

ENDS

About Cyanite

Cyanite helps music companies to turn their catalogues into their own personal Spotify – powering music libraries with the simplicity, visibility, and functionality to perform how they and their users expect them to. 

From its offices located in Berlin and Mannheim, Cyanite builds powerful AI-based analysis and recommendation solutions to efficiently tag and search music. This enables music, entertainment and advertising companies to quickly and cost-effectively deliver the right songs for their customers’ search queries.

Cyanite supports some of the most renowned and innovative players in the music and advertising industry via API or no code solutions. Among the music companies using Cyanite are the production music libraries APM Music, Pond5 and Far Music (RTL), the music publishers BMG, Nettwerk Music Group, NEUBAU Music and Schubert Music, and the sound branding agencies amp sound branding, Universal Music Solutions, and Human Worldwide.

Cyanite’s vision is to become the universal intelligence that understands, connects and recommends the world’s music – an intelligence that can translate music into anything and anything into music.

Website: https://www.cyanite.ai/

Web App: https://app.cyanite.ai/register

API: https://api-docs.cyanite.ai/

LinkedIn: Cyanite.ai

Twitter: Cyanite.ai

PRESS RELEASE

Cyanite signs up BMG to use AI tagging across entire catalog

AI-powered music tagging and search firm Cyanite will categorise BMG’s catalog of three million tracks to unlock new value for Synch

Mannheim/Berlin, September 27, 2022 – Cyanite, a tech company with various solutions in AI-powered music tagging and search, has signed a global deal with music giant BMG to unlock new value from its three-million-track catalogue.

Bertelsmann-owned BMG, the world’s largest music company outside the three ‘majors’, has appointed Cyanite with the aim of making its entire repertoire more searchable and accessible for Synch – i.e. placing music in movies and advertising. Cyanite’s automatic tagging will support BMG’s internal and external creatives to identify “hidden gems” in the search for the perfect song for film, TV, games and advertising usages. Before deciding on Cyanite, BMG tested all available technologies extensively.

BMG’s catalogue has grown exponentially through acquisitions and organic growth since its formation in 2008. Cyanite’s tech will allow BMG to easily integrate newly acquired catalogues such as that of Telamo, the largest independent record label in Germany. 

Cyanite’s technology is being integrated into BMG’s internal content management system BMG Songs, the market-leading repertoire, creative and licensing platform used by BMG’s synch teams around the world. BMG’s tagging team can now focus their efforts away from manual tagging, while the company gets on with exploiting its entire catalogue.

The BMG development team is currently overseeing the integration of Cyanite’s Application Programming Interface (API), which will enable employees to leverage Cyanite’s creative metadata. Once integrated, BMG’s repertoire will be processed by Cyanite’s AI technology and the results delivered back via the API to BMG’s software. 

BMG VP Group Technology Gaurav Mittal said, “BMG is committed to using AI technologies to optimize our revenues so we can speed the flow of royalties to artists and songwriters. We are delighted to be working with Cyanite to enhance our Synch services.”

BMG SVP Global Synch Licensing Allegra Willis Knerr said: “In a world in which there are literally tens of millions of tracks available to Synch, AI offers the ability to simultaneously improve the accuracy of pitches and level the playing field for artists and songwriters. AIready, wherever the brief allows it, BMG has abandoned the distinction between ‘frontline’ and ‘catalogue’. Our objective with Cyanite is to maximise the chances for every single song in our repertoire to be licensed.”

Markus Schwarzer, CEO, Cyanite, said: “We are very proud to announce this deal with BMG, a company which shares our vision of a universal intelligence that understands, indexes and recommends the world’s music. Working together, BMG and Cyanite will uncover the potential of every single track in the catalogue.”

The news comes after Cyanite announced in August that it has closed an €800,000 seed investment round to further expand its AI-based solution for the music industry. This investment was led by former finetunes founders Oke Göttlich and Henning Thieß. The goal is to sustain the company’s vision of universal music intelligence to revolutionise how music is selected in entertainment and advertising.

BMG is the second division of Bertelsmann to sign a deal with Cyanite, following RTL Group, the Luxembourg-based international media conglomerate.

About Cyanite

Cyanite helps music companies to turn their catalogues into their own personal Spotify – powering music libraries with the simplicity, visibility, and functionality to perform how they and their users expect them to. 

From its offices located in Berlin and Mannheim, Cyanite builds powerful AI-based analysis and recommendation solutions to efficiently tag and search music. This enables music, entertainment and advertising companies to quickly and cost-effectively deliver the right songs for their customers’ search queries.

Cyanite supports some of the most renowned and innovative players in the music and advertising industry via API or no code solutions. Among the music companies using Cyanite are the production music libraries APM Music and Far Music (RTL), the radio station SWR, the music publishers Nettwerk, NEUBAU Music and Schubert Music, and the sound branding agencies amp sound branding, Universal Music Solutions, and Human Worldwide.

Cyanite’s vision is to become the universal intelligence that understands, connects and recommends the world’s music – an intelligence that can translate music into anything and anything into music.

About BMG

BMG – est. 2008 – is the world’s fourth-biggest music company, the first new global player in the music business of the streaming age, and a record label and music publisher in one. Named in 2020 one of the world’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company, BMG’s pitch is unique – a relentless focus on fairness and transparency and service to its artist and songwriter clients. BMG’s 21 offices across 12 core music markets now represent over three million songs and recordings, including many of the most renowned and successful catalogs in popular music history. BMG’s fresh approach includes production music, films, books, artist management, merchandise, neighboring rights, and live as well as music publishing and recordings off the same service platform. BMG is owned by international media, services and education company Bertelsmann, whose other content businesses include the entertainment company RTL Group and the trade book publisher Penguin Random House. With its multi-platform perspective, integrated technology platform and commitment to help artists maximize their income, BMG aims to be the best company in music to do business with. www.bmg.com 

Website: https://www.cyanite.ai/

Web App: https://app.cyanite.ai/register

API: https://api-docs.cyanite.ai/

LinkedIn: Cyanite.ai

Twitter: Cyanite.ai

PRESS RELEASE

Cyanite announces new investors to support vision of universal music translation

New investment round fuels Cyanite’s goal to develop universal intelligence that understands, connects, and recommends the world’s music

Berlin, July 27, 2022 – Cyanite, a tech company with various solutions in AI-powered music tagging and search, has closed an investment round with leading entrepreneurs from the music and technology industries. The goal is to sustain the company’s vision of universal music translation. 

The investment round was led by former finetunes founders Oke Göttlich and Henning Thieß. Other experienced music and tech experts, such as Michael Shmilov (former COO of Viber), Patrick Joest (former EVP Global Content Partnerships & Sync at BMG), as well as Lars Ettrup (CEO and co-founder of Linkfire) support the round with their deep market expertise. 

In addition, family office Lioncorn Capital and other tech business angels (Daniel Kondermann, Oliver Lesche, Andrea Kranzer, Edmund Ahrend) invested in this round. The round builds on earlier investments in which BWM GmbH also participated.

The investors support Cyanite’s vision to provide the entertainment and advertising industries with an AI-powered universal music translation engine capable of finding the objectively appropriate music for any desired emotional target. 

The news follows considerable consolidation in the AI-powered music tagging and search market, as many competitors such as Musiio, Musimap and Musicube have been acquired by larger companies in 2021 and 2022.

Cyanite was launched in 2019 with the purpose of connecting everyone with the right music at the right time. The AI is used by different leading music rights holders, music tech companies and brand agencies to gain deeper insights and understanding about individual songs. Cyanite makes it easy for them to take control of their repertoire by offering intuitive AI solutions that provide better ways to sort, search, and match songs.

Markus Schwarzer, CEO, Cyanite, said: “The investment demonstrates the excitement in the worlds of music and technology about our objective of making it possible for any input – be it keywords, sounds, free text, or images – to be understood by AI and translated into music.

“Our investors recognise that we are closing in on our goal, and that trust shows us that we are in the right place at the right time. At this time when competing companies are being bought out, we’re excited to continue our journey towards creating a universal intelligence that understands, indexes and recommends the world’s music.”

Investment round leader Oke Göttlich, former finetunes founder, said: “I am excited to be playing a part in the future of Cyanite. They have the right team and a powerful plan for the future of music recommendation, one that has the potential to transform the way that music’s emotional power is understood, quantified and monetised.“

About Cyanite

Cyanite helps music companies to turn their catalogues into their own personal Spotify – powering music libraries with the simplicity, visibility, and functionality to perform how they and their users expect them to. 

From its main office located in Berlin, Cyanite builds powerful AI-based analysis and recommendation solutions that enable effective tagging and music search to improve the ability of music, entertainment, and advertising companies to deliver the right songs for the right search.

Cyanite helps companies to unlock the full potential of their music catalogues to leverage their full depth at a time when more music is accessible than ever before. Their goal is to let everybody find the right music for any use case – and the right use case for any song.

Cyanite supports some of the most renowned and innovative players in the music and advertising industry. Among the music companies using Cyanite are the production music libraries APM Music and Far Music (RTL), the radio station SWR, the music publishers Nettwerk, NEUBAU Music and Schubert Music, and the sound branding agencies amp sound branding, Universal Music Solutions, and Human Worldwide.

Cyanite’s vision is to become the universal intelligence that understands, connects and recommends the world’s music – an intelligence that can translate music into anything and anything into music.

Website: https://www.cyanite.ai/

Web App: https://app.cyanite.ai/register

API: https://api-docs.cyanite.ai/

LinkedIn: Cyanite.ai

Twitter: Cyanite.ai