The global music industry reached an all-time high of nearly 5 trillion streams in 2024. In the midst of this growth, the most innovative companies in music are making strides to position artists for the future. More streaming means more opportunities for streaming fraud, and a number of companies are working on measures to fight it. TuneCore spearheaded the creation of the Music Fights Fraud Alliance, a coalition between labels, distributors, and digital service providers aimed at eradicating streaming fraud.
Several of this year’s honorees are invested in snuffing out fraud to keep money where it belongs: in artists’ pockets. The Mechanical Licensing Collective, a nonprofit organization that invoices digital service providers and distributes mechanical royalties, uses internal analytics and research to track down bad actors. Merlin is similarly invested in using data to monitor fraudulent streams.
Streaming growth also means that artists have to work harder than ever to avoid slipping through the cracks. This year’s list includes companies that are working to spotlight marginalized and underrepresented artists. The production music company Alibi commissioned three albums of Indigenous American music for royalty-free licensing, resulting in hundreds of thousands of streams and providing the participating artists with a new way to promote their music and culture on TV, film, and various other media. At a time when trans rights are increasingly under attack, the not-for-profit Red Hot released its ambitious and sprawling TRAИƧA compilation that celebrates trans and nonbinary folks to the tune of over 10 million streams.
As music and tech become more and more intrinsically linked, a crop of companies are focused on the role of AI in the industry. For SoundCloud, that meant using an AI-powered recommendation algorithm to boost under-the-radar artists. Music AI looked at the ways in which its stem separation technology can impact the use of licensed music in TV, film, and radio, thanks to a new partnership with the music tech platform SourceAudio.
10. Music AI
For helping amateur music producers find their (synthetic) voice
As its name suggests, Music AI is harnessing the powers of artificial intelligence to empower creators of all stripes, thanks to its 50-plus AI audio models. This technology powers Music AI’s consumer app, Moises. Known for its algorithmic stem separation technology, Moises isolates individual vocals or instruments of a song—known as “stems”—from a mixed track, allowing users to create individualized backing tracks that are ideal for practicing. Moises’ suite of AI-powered tools also includes lyric transcription, chord recognition, beat detection, mastering, and vocal synthesis.
In late 2023, Moises launched an AI voice studio that gives users the ability to adjust a vocal track with the help of 50 licensed artists’ voices. Music AI touts Moises as “the Musician’s App,” and it’s certainly far-reaching, boasting a user base of more than 50 million. In 2024, Moises was named Apple’s iPad App of the Year.
Indeed, Music AI appeals to hobbyists and professionals alike. In 2023, the company began a partnership with the venerated Berklee College of Music in Boston, positioning itself as the premiere AI-driven product for the next generation of great artists. Moises already has a foothold among working musicians. In preparation for an audition with Slipknot, drummer Eloy Casagrande used Moises’ stem-splitting technology to mute the drum parts and practice the band’s catalog. He nailed the audition and landed the gig.
In 2024, Music AI partnered with SourceAudio, a music hosting, distribution, and licensing platform with 567,000 active users, among them more than 140 broadcasters. The partnership has big implications for SourceAudio’s clients in TV, film, and radio, who can separate and utilize cinematic stems from existing tracks across thousands of catalogs. And 2025 looks to be just as ambitious for Music AI, which in January announced a $40 million round of funding led by Connect Ventures—a partnership between Creative Artists Agency and NEA—and the Brazilian investment capital firm Monashees.