WMG Signs Next Big Thing: A Bundle Of Code

By FYI Staff

Warner Music has become the first major label to sign a record deal for an algorithm.

The German mood music app Endel has released five of the 20 albums under contract for this year.

Poo-pooing old-school background and mood music libraries, Endel has created an app that blends neuroscience with what it calls" generative sound" that is designed to create personalised soundscapes for users depending on their requirements. The official site refers to it as “a cross-platform audio ecosystem”.

The app, currently available on smartphones and Amazon Echo, uses inputs such as the time of day and the weather to create certain sounds. So far, the five albums released have been called Clear Night, Rainy Night, Cloudy Afternoon, Cloudy Night and Foggy Morning, all based around different types of sleep.

According to the company’s website, Endel’s core algorithm is based on circadian rhythms, pentatonic scale, and sound masking. “The sounds adapt to different inputs – like time of day, weather, heart rate, and location,” the pitch reads.

Investors to date include Amazon Alex Fund, Japanese entertainment firm Avex Group, Moscow VC tech incubator Impulse Ventures, angel investment firm Kima Ventures, DJ La Fleur, Techstars Music, and Major Lazer’s Jillionaire.

If successful, expect more algorithm-generated compositions to flood the market and even create scores for film and TV. Artificial intelligence is already used in picking hits, creating playlists and, to some degree, massaging live music and human-penned songs, so the skip from now to eternity is perhaps not such a long jump.