Sample library and music making platform Splice has become a prominent player in the DIY music making space since it launched in 2013.
The platform, reported by Bloomberg to be valued at nearly $500 million after raising $55 million in February 2021 (led by Goldman Sachs’ GS Growth), says it’s used by around 4 million people and has paid out over $30 million to musicians to date.
Splice carries more than 2 million royalty free samples, with its Splice Sounds library launching new sounds from the likes of Murda Beatz, Clean Bandit, Oliver and Fraser T Smith in 2021 alone.
This catalog of pre-cleared sounds has proved hugely popular with bedroom producers and established producers for superstar artists alike.
Now, Splice wants to make the process of finding those sounds, and layering them, as simple as swiping left and right in an app.
The company has launched a new artificial intelligence-powered music app called CoSo, which uses what Splice calls its ‘Complementary Sounds’ AI technology to create music “in split-seconds”.
Splice says that its CoSo mobile app, available on Android and IOS, uses AI to find sound samples from across the Splice catalog that work together.
The company claims that its app can “unlock billions of musical outcomes”.
The CoSo app uses what Splice calls ‘Stacks’, a collection of up to eight looping layers of different elements like vocals, beats, bass lines, guitar parts, keys or FX etc.
When you’re in the app, you can select the style of the music you want to make, from “Beats” to “Chill” to “Disco/ Funk”. Some of these styles are only available with a Splice subscription.
You can then set the BPM and add up to eight layers of elements like vocals, drums, pads, keys etc using the plus icon at the bottom of the Stack.
By swiping right on one of the loop layers, CoSo will look for another sound that fits with the entire Stack of loops.
You can keep swiping right on a layer until you a find a sample that you like, or swipe left to delete a layer.
Splice says the result “is a fluid sound discovery and music-making experience”.
“The magic happens behind the scenes, allowing you to stay focussed on being creative.”
Splice
Adds the company: “No search boxes, no auditioning sounds, no browsing — just using your ear to find what appeals to you.
“The magic happens behind the scenes, allowing you to stay focussed on being creative, whether you’re an established artist or have never made music before”.
Once you’ve created a Stack that you like, you can save the creation in the CoSo app and share it via a URL.
If you’re a Splice subscriber, you can view the sounds from the Stack in Splice, which you can then drag-and-drop into your Digital Audio Workstation to build those loops into a full song. (Splice offers three subscription plans, starting at $9.99 per month for Sounds+).
The CoSo app also indicates that users will soon be able to export Stacks to Ableton Live.
Plus, according to Splice, once you’re “ready to take things further, you can share your masterpiece on TikTok directly from the app”.
Splice Sounds are cleared for commercial use, with the company stating on its Splice Sounds info page that they can be used “for anything”.
The Royalty free and Artificial Intelligence-powered music making app space is a fast rising sector of the music business.
The $65 million-backed social music making app BandLab for example, which also offers a royalty free sample library, released an AI-powered tool in December called SongStarter, described as a royalty free music generator.
Last month, AI-powered music creation platform Soundful raised $3.8 million for its app that lets users create a new track from scratch using a variety of templates and genres. The company says that all its tracks are fully licensed for use in videos, advertisements and social media campaigns.
“We hope that by integrating intelligent discovery, curation, and creation, we can help creators with instant inspiration wherever they are”
Alejandro Koretzky, Splice
Alejandro Koretzky, Head of Machine Learning & Audio Science Innovation at Splice, said: “I believe we will hear a richer and more diverse selection of sounds bubbling up through this technology, that we might surprise creatives with new ideas.
“Some people will use it to discover sounds and others will use it to create music. At Splice we advocate for the artist and put humans at the center of any canvas.
“We hope that by integrating intelligent discovery, curation, and creation, we can help creators with instant inspiration wherever they are”
“The feedback so far has been deeply motivating for us with talk of empowerment, inspiration and joy; from a little app with no waveforms, no knobs, and definitely no shift key.”
Steve Martocci, Splice
Splice Co-founder and CEO Steve Martocci, said: “The team has built a beautiful unlock for creativity and it speaks to the heart of Splice’s future.
“The feedback so far has been deeply motivating for us with talk of empowerment, inspiration and joy; from a little app with no waveforms, no knobs, and definitely no shift key.
“The sampling community has been waiting for a breakthrough like this, which was only possible when we paired CoSo with the depth of Splice Sounds.”
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