Epidemic Sound Launches AI Audio-Based Search Tool on Google Cloud 10 May 2022
Epidemic Audio Reference (EAR) tool developed on Google Cloud will simplify and supercharge music discovery for content creators worldwide
Latest update to strategic partnership, aimed to support the company's rapid growth
Epidemic Sound, the market-leading service for direct licensing of royalty-free music, today announced Epidemic Audio Reference (EAR), an audio-based search tool running on Google Cloud that will help content creators quickly and easily find music for their productions.
Epidemic Sound offers 35,000 tracks and 90,000 sound effects used by millions of storytellers worldwide - everyone from YouTubers to small businesses to the world’s largest brands. Designed to create a more natural search experience, creators can now use EAR to manually select specific sections of Epidemic Sound tracks to use as search criteria. Developed using Google Cloud technology, including BigQuery, TensorFlow, and Vertex AI, the tool uses machine learning to analyse the characteristics and notes of the chosen bar of music and then suggest music of a similar tone and sound.
“EAR is the latest feature in our commitment to making it as easy and quick as possible for content creators to find the right music no matter how they search. Google Cloud’s scalable and light-touch infrastructure has been instrumental to our ability to meet user demand and develop innovations like EAR,” says Greg Elkehag Funk, Chief Product Officer at Epidemic Sound.
The launch of EAR on Google Cloud is the latest phase of the two companies’ ongoing strategic partnership. To keep pace with its growing global community of users, Epidemic Sound selected Google Cloud in 2019 to build a scalable infrastructure and rapidly grow its business. Since then, the company has expanded its use of Google’s technology portfolio to include advertising and analytics, ML capabilities, containerisation, compute and storage.
Google Cloud is already supporting Epidemic sound to:
- Deliver more personalized and frictionless platform user experiences - By using BigQuery and Looker, Epidemic Sound is able to connect multiple sources of external and internal data and apply ML analytics to better understand user behaviour. Epidemic Sound is also able to translate these insights into better library categorisation, tailored searches and recommendations by matching results with a user’s taste based on tracks they’ve previously downloaded.
- Speed up development of products and services - By leveraging Google Kubernetes Engine to automate application deployment, scaling, and upgrades, Epidemic Sound is able to free up developer time to stay laser-focused on innovation of new platform features and services for creators.
- Ensure platform stability and reliability - Epidemic Sound is using Google Cloud's secure and scalable global infrastructure to help manage swings in traffic and minimize latency – no matter how many users are visiting it.
- Drive an ROI-efficient approach to marketing – By connecting Google Marketing Platform and Google Ads with Google Analytics in the cloud, Epidemic Sound can capture real-time user actions and accurately predict customer lifetime value.
“Epidemic Sound represents a great example of a business continually transforming and adapting to change. We are proud to work with a home-grown Swedish company and be part of its growth journey. Through the use of Google Cloud technologies, Epidemic Sound can now equip and empower its entire organization with the tools necessary to serve its growing digital communities,” says Eva Fors, Managing Director, Google Cloud Nordic Region.
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THE HEADLINES
Universal Music Group and Stability AI announce strategic alliance to co-develop professional AI music creation tools (see News)
UMG and Udio settle lawsuit; announce agreement for new licensed AI music creation platform (see News)
The last days of Utopia (see News)
UK Music introduces 'Five Ps' guide to boost diversity and inclusion across the music industry (see News)
Reservoir Media: A hidden gem? (see Features)
The music industry remains divided on generative AI. Where will that leave us? (see Comment)
How fan power is reshaping pop (see Features)
The “forever” stakes of generative AI ownership (see Comment)
Lyor Cohen: AI won’t replace artists — it will make them unstoppable (see Opinion)
Omdia tips music publishers’ revenues to hit $10bn this year (see Reports)
Unit1 Studio launches offering potential for immersive avatar concerts through lower production costs (see Digital)
Are we still in the music business? When your POV is worth more than your mp3s (see Opinion)
Is rock’n’roll dead? (see Features)
Book extract: Body Of Work: How The Album Outplayed The Algorithm And Survived Playlist Culture (see Comment)
With MTV channels switching off, is the music video under threat? (see Features)