B2B music licensing marketplace Songtradr has acquired MassiveMusic, a global creative music agency that helps leading brands become more strategic and effective with the emotional power of music and sound.
The acquisition of MassiveMusic comes at a pivotal time in the industry where a rise in technologies and channels of content means the number of places where a brand’s sound is experienced is dramatically increasing. With the explosion of content creation across multiple media formats, the size of the music industry is expected to reach $131B by 2030. Marketers more than ever have to cut through and create maximum impact, driving an urgency to optimize the power of music. Combining MassiveMusic’s music for brands footprint with Songtradr’s technologies and data-informed B2B music products creates a complete tech enabled music solution for brands in the digital age.
“MassiveMusic has built a standout reputation for bold, brilliant, creative music solutions for brands over the last 20+ years,” said Paul Wiltshire, CEO of Songtradr. “The complexities of the B2B music industry have made it challenging to fully adopt and leverage technology, limiting it from experiencing the same growth as the consumer music industry. Bringing our companies and competencies together creates the scale and trust to enable a true transformation of the B2B music industry and unlock significant growth potential.”
MassiveMusic has approximately 85 employees with offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. The company creates and curates world class music, strategic sonic branding solutions and music management for global brands such as Nike, Heineken, Apple and UEFA. This year, MassiveMusic launched what it bills as the world’s first data-driven sonic branding tool: MassiveBASS, a revolutionary platform that combines art and science and predicts success in recall, distinctiveness and connection to brand personality. MassiveMusic has also won industry awards such as Cannes Gold Lion, D&AD, CLIO, Transform and more. MassiveMusic has seen impressive growth over the past year, despite the backdrop of COVID-19, delivering double digit revenue growth in 2020 in comparison to 2019.
“At MassiveMusic we are very excited to be joining forces with Songtradr. Our services are fully complementary to each other, allowing us to further enrich the services that we provide to our clients. The global brands and talented creative agencies we work with can all profit from the unique proposition that is created by combining the world’s biggest B2B music licensing technology company with the leading global creative music agency,” said Hans Brouwer, founder and CEO of MassiveMusic. “The thing that excites me the most is how our visions, ambitions and cultures are aligned. From the first meeting onwards our partnership felt like we’d been in a band for a long time already.”
Songtradr has over 300,000 tracks licensed through its ecosystem and more than 1.5 millions tracks on its platform. In 2019 Songtradr acquired Big Sync Music, and has since gone on to acquire Cuesongs, Song Zu, Pretzel, Tunefind and made an investment into ASX listed music data company Jaxsta.
MassiveMusic will lead the B2B Music Services Division of Songtradr Group enabling brands and agencies to dramatically increase their marketing impact and solve their music needs. From artists, music licensing, bespoke music composition and sonic branding to tech, data and real-time insights, marketers can be more efficient and impactful.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More