The two latest music-industry acquisitions cover different areas: one an extension of AI-assisted music-making, and the other an expansion into Australasia and Asia-Pacific.
Acquisition one: BandLab Technologies has snapped up Aiode, the startup that was a winner in the 2024 edition of our Music Ally SI:X contest, and went on to raise $5.5m of seed funding as it emerged from closed beta.
The company’s business was based on providing ‘virtualised musicians’ for human artists and producers to collaborate with, generating stems to export into DAWs, while paying the original humans who helped to train the virtuals.
“What sets Aiode apart is that it was made hand in hand with musicians, who share in the value their work helps create,” said Drew Silverstein, once an AI-music founder himself, and now senior adviser on AI, innovation and strategy at BandLab Technologies.
(That’s the parent group of music-creation app BandLab, but also Cakewalk, ReverbNation and Airbit. And now Aiode.)
The latter will continue as a standalone service, with plans to add native audio recording and extra DAW features in the future.
Acquisition two: Too Lost is acquiring Australian distribution and artist-services firm Gyro·Group – its first deal since taking strategic investment from GoldState Music and TA Associates in March.
Gyro’s business includes distribution, marketing and artist services for Australasian artists; a global white-label distribution and infrastructure platform; a boutique marketing agency; and a platform called Soothe Sounds focused on neo-classical and contemporary instrumental music.
“Australia has one of the most exciting independent music communities in the world, and we intend to invest heavily behind Gyro to continue to support artists, labels, managers and music businesses in the APAC region,” said Too Lost CEO Gregory Hirschhorn.
