Tuned Global has acquired Swedish music technology company Pacemaker including its AI-driven DJ applications, marking the B2B music service provider’s first acquisition.
The company also calls the purchase “a watershed” in its growth as it expands into new markets and “innovates” its music and media services for its clients worldwide.
Tuned Global, backed by Australian venture capital firms Exto Partners and Artesian, acquired Pacemaker, its former client, for an undisclosed sum.
According to the announcement, Pacemaker, which was “founded by rocket scientists with a passion for data”, holds several patents for its proprietary AI DJ tech and “rightsholder-friendly” DJ mix solutions.
Pacemaker’s AI DJ can weave tracks and other audio together in real time for what the companies claim to be a “deeply engaging listener experience”. The company also offers a “match machine”, which it says can help curators “instantly dig up great tracks in a massive catalog”.
These AI-powered personalization and curation capabilities, claim Pacemaker, “substantially increase user retention rates and session lengths”.
The company’s DJ interface and technology will be added to Tuned Global’s streaming product and service line.
The deal comes around nine months since Pacemaker revealed (as reported at the time by Music Ally) that it was seeking a sale of the company as it sought to launch a radio service that would allow people to broadcast their own music radio shows.
Tuned Global said it started working with Pacemaker when the latter firm sought direct licensing with rights holders and integrated with Tuned Global’s streaming API’s and Content delivery technology.
Pacemaker CEO Jonas Norberg, in May 2020, said in a blog post that Spotify’s decision to pull its API for DJ apps “will affect Pacemaker but we’re working on bringing music directly to the app via our own licenses, making the Pacemaker experience better than ever.”
Pacemaker claims to be the first DJ app to team up with Spotify when it launched Pacemaker for iPad in February 2014. But Spotify’s decision to suspend third-party DJ applications’ access to music via the streaming app prompted Pacemaker to license music directly into the platform and charge users with a monthly fee.
“When Spotify deprecated the DJ API, Pacemaker pivoted to a directly licensed catalogue. This solved the biggest problem, the need for a Spotify Premium subscription to access music on Pacemaker,” Norberg told Music Ally in May 2022.
“Now anyone that wants to use Pacemaker can do it, but it’s an expensive $17 per month service. which creators are prepared to pay for, but not listeners, and that is detrimental to the acquisition funnel.”
At the time, Pacemaker was reportedly generating $64,000 in monthly recurring revenue.
“Thanks to Pacemaker, Tuned Global extends its B2B streaming technology dominance by now offering enhanced AI tools that will hook and excite users as part of our white-label music apps.”
Con Raso, Tuned Global
“Our ultimate goal is to help our clients create more engagement for their end users,” said Tuned Global founder and Managing Director Con Raso.
“Thanks to Pacemaker, Tuned Global extends its B2B streaming technology dominance by now offering enhanced AI tools that will hook and excite users as part of our white-label music apps, as well as in a standalone product for companies who aren’t yet our customers.”
“Our AI DJ is so good that it can improve the experience of any playlist, creating seamless, great-sounding, well-timed transitions between songs and audio. ”
Jonas Norberg, Pacemaker
“We believe that with Tuned Global, Pacemaker’s full-stack, mobile-first tech will reach a wider audience and we’ll be able to improve the music experience for Tuned Global’s clients. An obvious fit is in the wellness industry, but we think it’s much broader than that,” Norberg said.
The company’s AI DJ app has won numerous awards including the Apple Design Award and Apple Editor’s Choice.
“Our AI DJ is so good that it can improve the experience of any playlist, creating seamless, great-sounding, well-timed transitions between songs and audio. ”
Music Ally reported last year that the sale of Pacemaker includes its streaming service with more than 18 million tracks, as well as its technology that Pacemaker reportedly spent $15 million developing.
“We’re really excited to not only be extending Tuned Global organically as we’ve always done but now to also do so through a perfectly aligned acquisition,” said Raso.
“Pacemaker has a team and tech that fit our core values and what we’re trying to achieve for our customers and their end users.“
Tuned Global has been actively teaming up with a range of sectors beyond the music industry in recent years. It has been powering dedicated streaming platforms and offering B2B licensed digital music solutions tof companies and brands like UFC (for its UFC Ultimate Sounds app), Line Music, Warner Music (on a custom Ed Sheeran app), Universal Music, Sony Music, True Digital Group, Pizza Hut, GMM Grammy, FanLabel and Psycle, as well as other partners in the fitness, gaming, media, telecommunication and medical industries.
Its most recent partnerships were with yoga and fitness giant Lululemon about a week ago, medtech firms MediMusic and Nue Life Health in December and music services provider Rehegoo Music Group in July.
Music Business Worldwide