Announcement

Bridge raises €3M to become the Cloud of the music industry

The Bridge team -

The Bridge team

Image with the logos of Bpifrance and LeanSquare announcing Bridge.audio's €3M fundraising.

As generative AI makes a dramatic entrance into the music industry and raises significant legal questions, Bridge.audio raises €3M with Bpifrance and Leansquare to establish itself as the music industry’s cloud, powered by responsible descriptive AI that serves rights holders and all music industry stakeholders.

Optimized interactions in a saturated environment

Of the approximately 180 million tracks listed on streaming platforms in 2023, only 15% have been played more than 1,000 times, and 25% have never been played. This recent revelation has shocked the industry and prompted streaming platforms to reduce the number of hosted tracks (Deezer removed 26 million tracks) to lessen their environmental footprint.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Among creators and professionals (artists, managers, labels, and other industry players), a far greater volume of files is exchanged before reaching the final versions that make it to these platforms. Nearly ten million audio files are shared daily among the various links in the chain, totaling more than three billion exchanges per year. These exchanges occur through various tools (WeTransfer, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) without a standard, increasing the industry’s ecological footprint.

Thanks to its workspaces, Bridge.audio users can collaborate more effectively and manage all interactions with their network: receiving, storing, and sharing files, significantly simplifying their workflow and reducing their digital footprint.

A screenshot of a Bridge.audio workspace and Bridge’s AI auto-tagging feature

To achieve this, the company relies on a descriptive AI developed in-house, based on a large dataset accumulated over nearly ten years. Bridge.audio thus paves the way for a new search experience: by tags, reference tracks, or even natural language searches.

“The use of AI algorithms to listen, tag, sort, and accurately find audio tracks is the most virtuous and ethical application of this technology. Thus, an artistic director can, for example, decide to only listen to cloud rap tracks sung by a woman if that’s their current preference, rather than randomly choosing from the bulk of tracks they receive.” Louis Tarrisse, co-founder of Bridge.audio

Enhancing discoverability in an oversaturated market

“The precision achieved by our descriptive AI also allows us to ensure better ‘discoverability’ of music, as they say in Quebec,” emphasized Clément Souchier, founder of the company.

Discoverability refers to the ability for rights holders to facilitate the discovery of their music and for ‘buyers’ and ‘influencers’ to more easily discover tracks or talents.

The applications at each stage of the process are numerous: from artistic directors to venue programmers, as well as music supervisors and other professionals searching for music for audiovisual projects (ad agencies, editors).

In this latter segment, Bridge.audio is currently at the forefront with the launch last January of a dedicated marketplace within its platform: the Sync Hub*. This solution allows rights holders (labels, publishers, artists) to make their music accessible to image professionals. They can find the ideal track for their film, series, advertisement, or video game. For instance, they can perform a natural language search for “a French song about heartbreak by a relatively unknown female singer that blends pop and electro and has a graceful and intimate feel.”

As Clément Souchier discusses in this article, Descriptive AI is a powerful technology that brings significant benefits to the music industry and has the advantage of supporting human creativity rather than replacing it.

Bridge.audio supported by a fundraising of €3 million.

To support the development of its product and help it become a reference in the music industry, Bridge.audio has completed a second fundraising round of €3 million led by Bpifrance, Leansquare, as well as several players from the music and tech industries.

Bridge.audio has been highlighted multiple times through prestigious awards and nominations: Innovation Prize from the National Music Center in 2022, Grand Prize of the I-Lab competition in 2021 and the BPIFrance Innovation Competition in 2019, Product of the Day on Product Hunt… Since its launch two years ago, Bridge.audio already boasts over 30,000 users worldwide. “We already have over 200 labels and publishers on the Sync Hub, and 120 buyers including companies like Orange, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, TBWA… as well as numerous independent supervisors,” explains Clément Souchier.

Sync refers to Synchronization, the industry term for describing the use of an existing track in an audiovisual project, whether it’s an advertisement, film, series, or video game.

Bridge.audio, Your Smart Audio Cloud

Bridge.audio is the SaaS solution for music and audio professionals. The team is developing the industry standard with a cloud-based solution specifically designed for professionals and creators. The platform optimizes connections between different links in the chain:

  • Reception, storage, and sharing via Workspaces

  • Discoverability through the implementation of marketplaces: The HUBs

With its technological component of AI-driven music description, Bridge.audio revolutionizes music description and music search, whether through the Workspaces or the HUBs. The Sync Hub, Bridge.audio’s internal marketplace, further enables rights holders to maximize their visibility among entertainment professionals (film, series, advertising, video games).

In the near future, Bridge.audio will open new hubs dedicated to other sectors such as original music, A&R, promotion, and more.

Bpifrance

Bpifrance finances businesses at every stage of their development through credit, guarantees, and equity. Bpifrance supports them in their innovation projects and international endeavors. Bpifrance also facilitates their export activities with a wide range of products. Advice, university programs, networking, and acceleration programs tailored to startups, SMEs, and mid-sized companies are also part of the offerings for entrepreneurs. With Bpifrance and its 50 regional offices, entrepreneurs benefit from a close, dedicated, and efficient partner to help them tackle their challenges.

For more information, visit: www.Bpifrance.fr

LeanSquare

LeanSquare is a specialized investment fund known for its impact in supporting innovative projects. Through a relationship based on trust and proximity, LeanSquare mobilizes its capital, knowledge, and network to assist mature startups in their growth strategies. LeanSquare operates as part of the Noshaq group, headquartered in Liège and active internationally. It positions itself at the forefront of three innovative markets: Cultural & Creative Industries, Enterprise Software, and Life Sciences.

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