Online audio streamer SoundCloud recently picked up the Singapore-based Musiio at an unspecified deal arrangement. Founded in 2018, Musiio utilizes a sophisticated artificial intelligence platform that essentially listens to, or more accurately analyzes, music at a much faster rate than humans. As it listens, Musiio's AI can likewise create playlists and even tag audio in order to make certain tunes stand out.
While, according to SoundCloud, Musiio's technology itself will become a core pillar to the music streamer, Musiio will still be able to work with alternative brands and companies at its own discretion. Neither companies have elaborated more on the exact integration and when SoundCloud users could expect to see Musiio AI analysis features, but the target is certainly soon enough.
Musiio is intended mainly to be SoundCloud's answer to the critics, who claim that discovering hits on the platform is rather difficult, if not impossible, given the immense amount of music. The difference between something like Spotify or Apple Music and SoundCloud is that there is no real official curation. Anyone can essentially upload their music to the platform, allotting it a myriad of variety while at the same time offering a ton of not-so-great-tunes.
The music analysis tool last saw a big financial push in 2019 via Singapore's Wavemaker Partners to the tune of $1 million. Musiio head honcho Hazel Savage explained the core of the company best to TechCrunch back in 2018: "Musiio won't replace the need to have people listening to music. But we can delete the inefficiencies."
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It has collaborated alongside the likes of audio network Free Music Archive, designed by the likes of US radio station WFMU, to bring various tracks that supposedly were "lost" throughout the seemingly unending catalog to the forefront of the platform. According to Free Music Archive, Musiio was able to reinvigorate one such song that was eight years old, doubling its listens in a matter of only two days.
The use case for SoundCloud is thus only proven in this regard. On one spectrum, SoundCloud could easily integrate Musiio's AI to highlight the talent and showcase burgeoning artists on a broader scale. The platform is well known for several such success stories even without said AI integrations, including the likes of Billie Eilish, Post Malone, Lil Nas X, and Bryson Tiller.
On the other side of the coin, Musiio's purchase by SoundCloud also aids in the platform's efforts to expand more. In theory, the news itself should only add more weight to the overall growth the platform is experiencing. It could incentivize many indie performers and users to remain on SoundCloud with the promise of seeing their music brought into the limelight far more successfully, while users can easily sift through and parse music into playlists without too much thought.
As such, increased play counts and additional playlists are certainly on the horizon for SoundCloud, no matter how the integration of Musiio actually is realized. And, given that, it may well prove to bring SoundCloud back to the forefront of music streaming platforms in the face of dominants like Apple Music and Spotify.
