After the tough year - Erik Wahlberg becomes new CEO of music giant Epidemic Sound. Epidemic Sound reshuffles at the top. After a tough 2025 and a quick acquisition this summer, a new permanent CEO now steps in to lead the company's AI initiative. Epidemic Group, the group behind music platform Epidemic Sound, gets a new CEO. On October 1, Erik Wahlberg takes over the role, the company announces in a press release. At the same time, Sara Börsvik, who has been acting CEO since March, moves into a combined role as chief operating officer (COO) and chief financial officer (CFO). Erik Wahlberg is a familiar name to Breakit's readers. He founded the video app Frever, which raised SEK 230 million but had to shut down last year when competition from generative AI became too tough. Shortly afterwards he launched AI company Blenda Labs, which was acquired by Epidemic already in July this year - just months after its start. Now he thus gets ultimate responsibility for the entire group. "When AI redraws how stories are created, and gives new opportunities to human creators, there is nowhere else I would rather be," says Erik Wahlberg in the press release. Declined last year. The CEO change comes after a hectic period for the music giant, which is partly owned by private equity giant EQT. As Breakit previously reported, revenue declined during 2025 to just over SEK 1.8 billion and the operating loss before depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) landed at minus SEK 199 million. The company then explained the drop with currency effects, a changed compensation model from a major partner and heavy investments in new technology. This spring, Epidemic made a reduction of 150 positions, shortly after Sara Börsvik took over as interim CEO when founder Oscar Höglund stepped down. In the press release, the company now states that, during Sara Börsvik's time in the CEO position, it has returned to profitable growth in the first half of 2026. Chairman of the board Hjalmar Winbladh believes that the choice of CEO reflects the company's new direction. From having primarily been about music, the group now wants to build a broader platform for the creative process, which includes, among other things, Blenda Labs' video technology. "In Erik, we have exactly the type of AI-smart, creator-focused leader who can take this company further," says Hjalmar Winbladh.

Epidemic Sound adds conversational search powered by Cyanite. Epidemic Sound has deployed conversational search on its website, built on Cyanite's music understanding and search technology beneath a large language model. September 18, 2026 Epidemic Sound has added conversational search to its website, with Cyanite's music understanding and search technology operating beneath a large language model (LLM). The implementation relies on structured music metadata to make catalog search work through natural-language conversation. Cyanite spent recent months improving its tagging models, while Epidemic Sound built the conversational search experience on top of that foundation. The result allows users to query the catalog in natural language and retrieve relevant tracks. Why structured metadata matters for AI workflows. As AI moves into agentic workflows, new catalog tools will require machines to understand and find music. Structured music metadata is the layer that makes those workflows possible. Across the music industry, repetitive catalog work often depends on unwritten knowledge held by individual staff. Software has historically automated only explicitly defined processes, but language models can now mimic 80 to 90 percent of a text-based workflow when given enough context. Language models still cannot adequately understand music on their own. They need structured music metadata describing sound and lyrics to recognize patterns behind catalog decisions. In one example, a creative sync professional at a music publisher sorts every new track into one of about 30 folders based on categories such as luxury brands, automotive campaigns, FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods), and uplifting music. Those folders reflect years of client placements rather than simple sonic similarity. An AI might identify a track as energetic, guitar-driven, and around 120 BPM (beats per minute), but that alone does not explain why it would be chosen for a specific folder. Given structured data from tracks already in those folders, the system can learn the patterns behind those decisions and suggest where a new song belongs before a human reviewer listens to it. Conversational search and catalog retrieval. At Epidemic Sound, the AI does not replace the underlying music understanding. It uses that understanding together with retrieval to make the catalog searchable through conversation. A conversational search system can interpret a request in natural language and connect it to the right tracks. A publisher can sort new uploads into an existing taxonomy, and a creative team can search for music that fits a specific brief. Different teams ask different questions, but they draw from the same catalog and pay the cost of understanding the music once. Similar deployments at Soundstripe and BeatStars. The approach is not isolated to Epidemic Sound. The following companies use Cyanite's structured music understanding in different workflows: * Soundstripe: users search in natural language and refine requests through conversation. The language model manages follow-up questions, interprets intent, and adjusts the search, while Cyanite provides the music understanding that keeps results grounded in the catalog. * BeatStars: hundreds of thousands of new tracks are uploaded to its marketplace every month. Structured audio metadata gives each new upload a consistent description, making the catalog immediately usable for search, recommendations, and future AI applications. These companies are solving different problems, but they have all arrived at the same conclusion: AI makes the interaction more natural. Brazil moves 3 billion reais a year into culture funding. Its music editais pay for the master and do not take it. IMPALA pays tribute to patrick zelnik, independent label advocate. September 18, 2026

Epidemic Group* acquires Blenda Labs, a next-generation video entertainment company. Acquisition builds on the group's April 2026 strategic announcement, combining Blenda Labs' proprietary tech for video production with the group's catalog and IP expertise to create next-generation entertainment for the new era. Stockholm, Sweden, July 3, 2026 - Epidemic Group today announced the acquisition of Blenda Labs, a next-generation video entertainment company based in Stockholm. The acquisition expands the group's capabilities beyond music and sound into video, offering Blenda Labs' customers of premium IP owners an integrated route from story to screen. Blenda Labs' proprietary tech platform combines AI-native workflows with human creative direction to produce high-quality video content that rights-sensitive customers can trust. The acquisition is a direct continuation of the strategic evolution Epidemic Group announced in April 2026, which set out the group's ambition to build infrastructure for new-era technological content creation beyond its core music catalog. "We are so excited to welcome the Blenda Labs team to Epidemic Group," said Sara Börsvik, Interim CEO of Epidemic Group. "We've always focused on building solutions that match how creators actually work today. Premium IP owners are looking to produce more content, faster, without losing creative control. Blenda has built a high-quality production system for exactly that where every creative decision is tracked, and human direction sits at the center of every step." Blenda Labs will operate as an autonomous business within the Epidemic Group, retaining its creative team and production capabilities while gaining access to the group's capabilities such as its world-class music and sound platform, and supporting infrastructure. "What we have built with Blenda is a production system that compounds," said Erik Wahlberg, CEO and Founder of Blenda Labs. "Every production makes the next one better and faster, always with the magic of human creativity at the center. Joining Epidemic Group means we can put that at the heart of how the best IP in the world gets made." The Stockholm-based company produces content ranging from theatrical feature films to digital-first YouTube channels, partnering with leading entertainment companies such as CoStudios, the company behind Laban The Little Ghost, and Storytel. "Animation has traditionally required trade-offs between quality and speed," said Viktor Linell, CEO of CoStudios. "Blenda excels in both. As they continue to scale and partner with Epidemic, we look forward to growing our partnership together." Footnote * Epidemic Sound Group AB is in the process of changing its name to Epidemic Group AB, following Board ratification. The name change is pending registration with Bolagsverket. About Epidemic Group The Epidemic Group is on a mission to reimagine storytelling through music, sound, and AI. The Group comprises Epidemic Sound, the world's leading soundtracking platform; Soundly, the world's premier sound effects platform; Overtone Studios, the Group's wellness music label, and Plenty Labs, an AI-native marketing operating system. Epidemic Sound is the Group's primary brand. Its 100% IP-owned catalog of more than 55,000 tracks and 250,000 Hollywood-grade sound effects soundtracks more than 3.5 billion daily views on YouTube and TikTok, with over 70% of the top 300 US YouTube channels using its music. Epidemic Sound partners with artists through a 50/50 revenue share, upfront payments, and bonuses, a model that has defined the company since 2009. The Group is backed by EQT, Blackstone, Creandum, Atwater Capital, Alecta, AMF, and IMAS Foundation. About Blenda Labs Blenda Labs is a next-generation entertainment company based in Stockholm. Its proprietary tech platform combines AI workflows with human creative direction to produce animation and video content for premium IP owners.