UTOPIA MUSIC LANDS ON THE MUSIMAP

Swiss music-tech company Utopia Music has acquired Quincy Jones-backed music-AI startup Musimap. The purchase will help it maximize revenue streams for musicians.

Musimap, founded in Belgium in 2015, tags music with mood and genre metadata to enhance the discoverability of music on streaming services.

By joining forces, Utopia, which launched in 2016, has upped its workforce to nearly 150 employees and expanded into territories including Belgium, Central Europe and Canada. The acquisition will help Utopia build a next-generation infrastructure that aims to advance creator rights and enable new opportunities for the record business.

As part of the deal, Musimap products—which currently include MusiMatch, MusiMotion and MusiMe, as used by clients such as Universal Music, Vevo and Warner Music Group—will be offered in new territories, moving it closer to its mission of tagging 80% of the global music catalog with metadata.

Utopia Chairman of the Board Mattias Hjelmstedt said: “The acquisition of Musimap represents yet another milestone on our journey of becoming the world’s preferred technology supporting the entire music industry by creating new revenue streams, consolidating data and reducing administration, while offering a broad spectrum of diverse yet deeply innovative services across the globe.”