Account Executive

elevate.io partners with Epidemic Sound. Summary by AI [BETA] close X. Blackbird plc has announced a strategic partnership with Epidemic Sound, a leading music licensing platform, to integrate Epidemic Sound's extensive music and sound effects catalogue directly into Blackbird's collaborative video editing platform, elevate.io, by the end of the first quarter of 2026. This integration aims to enhance the user experience by providing creators with instant access to royalty-free music, thereby simplifying content creation and eliminating copyright concerns. Industry analysts project the collaborative video editing market to reach $4.5 billion by 2029, and this partnership is expected to bolster elevate.io's competitive position within this growing market. elevate.io partners with Epidemic Sound to bring music to its collaborative video creation platform. elevate.io continues its strategy of rapid platform iteration, focussing on global leading partners like Epidemic Sound to deliver ultimate creative experience to the Creator Community. 7 January 2026, London - Blackbird plc (AIM:BIRD), the developer of the browser-based collaborative video editor elevate.io, today announces a partnership with Epidemic Sound, the leading music licensing platform for creators and brands. This partnership will mean Epidemic Sound's expansive music catalogue will be integrated directly into elevate.io, the Company's online collaborative video editing platform, before the end of the first quarter of 2026. This integration will give elevate.io users instant access to Epidemic Sound's world-class catalogue of music and sound effects within the platform's editor, making it easier than ever to create polished, professional content and removing the stress of copyright worries or additional royalties. Creator-first company Epidemic Sound provides high-quality, royalty-free music and sound effects for creators, brands and media companies. By owning all the rights to its catalogue, it makes music licensing simple, safe and worry-free. Its surging popularity generates over 3 billion views per day from videos which include Epidemic Sound's music. Trusted by global brands including GoPro, Coca-Cola, Apple and Levi's, Epidemic Sound is deeply embedded in the creator ecosystem through partnerships with renowned artists such as legendary guitarist Johnny Marr and integrations across platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Adobe, Canva and DaVinci Resolve. "Industry analysts forecast the collaborative video editing market will reach $4.5 billion by 2029. elevate.io aims to lead this category by bringing world class video creation tools to our customers within a single, seamless experience. Every creator knows that music not only embellishes their stories, it completes them." said Blackbird Executive Chair, Ian McDonough. "Partnering with Epidemic Sound to provide an integrated, fluid experience not only enhances elevate.io's value proposition for its users, but enables them to create, iterate and deliver professional videos while never breaking their creative flow. This partnership is also an early validation of our unique approach to collaborative video editing by the industry's leading music and soundtrack service for creators and brands." "We're delighted elevate.io has chosen to integrate our world-class music and sound effects into their innovative collaborative video editing platform via the Epidemic Sound API," said Sam Hall, Chief Product Officer at Epidemic Sound. "This partnership is a testament to our commitment to make it as easy as possible for global content creators to find the perfect soundtrack for their projects, publish without copyright worries, and enable them to focus on creating."

Epidemic Sound launches Studio, an AI tool that auto-soundtracks creator videos in seconds. Alongside the launch, the company is increasing its artist bonus pool by 43% for 2026, including a $1M fund for AI-related adaptations of human-made tracks. Swedish soundtracking platform Epidemic Sound today announced the launch of Studio, the first AI-powered soundtracking tool that enables content creators to instantly match and place both human-made music and sound effects seamlessly within their video. Epidemic Sound offers an extensive catalogue in music and sound for content creation, featuring world-class artists, Hollywood-grade ambient noises to establish background atmosphere, and foley sound effects to heighten actions such as breaking glass. From upload to fully synced soundtrack in seconds. Studio provides content creators with a faster, smoother creative workflow while ensuring artists continue to reach new audiences and earn from their craft. According to Höglund, Studio fast-tracks the soundtracking process, saving creators time and toil and allowing them to focus more on the fun stuff: "More than a third are struggling with time pressures or burnout. And with 94 per cent saying it contributes to their content's success, Studio helps them fully tap into the power of audio to elevate their productions with super high-quality, human-made tracks and sound effects that fit with their content. After a creator uploads their video, Studio uses AI and data insights, informed by contextual patterns from over 3 billion daily plays across online platforms, to analyse its content and instantly deliver a cohesive, legally safe soundtrack seamlessly synced to the visuals, as well as alternative music and sound effects options to choose from. The three creator workflows studio fixes. The idea for Sound is driven by first-hand experience and talking directly with content creators for the last decade and a half. Soundtracking a 1 to 3-minute video can take up to five hours. Sound saves creators time by helping with three key areas: inspiration, search, and editing. "We know the soundtracking setup has been somewhat broken. Essentially, creators often had to edit and re-edit their video to fit around audio. Finally, through Studio, we've been able to reverse that setup so that audio now fits around the video," shared Höglund. "For example, alongside music, it might see the flock of birds in the background and identify the opportunity to elevate the content through a sound effect and incorporate that into the soundtrack. It's a source of inspiration for all the opportunities to use sound to elevate the story, and this is particularly noticeable with sound effects as they're such an underestimated mechanism to add creative depth." Secondly, Sound addresses the need to search, instantly adding the first draft of a full soundtrack, including music and sound effects. It saves the layer of time and effort that comes with searching repeatedly to get the perfect audio and includes it in the draft. And finally, it reduces the need to edit the audio, syncing it to the action, explained Höglund: "For example, the romantic music begins with the kiss, or the sound of broken glass hits when the vase hits the floor - all trimmed so the audio starts and finishes logically. And at the same time, it keeps creative control well in the hands of the creator, providing different audio options for them to explore, as well as a simple way to import the draft soundtrack into their chosen video editor for further refinement." Höglund contends that Epidemic Sound's extensive catalogue has enabled the company to bring about "win-win scenarios, where everyone can benefit, and nobody has to lose." "Our extensive data pool sets apart how it can design products and tools that enhance the creator experience, as well as dial into what tracks are trending and how the global demand is shifting so we can continue to bring top-quality, contemporary music into the catalogue." Further, he attributes the company's success to that fact that it takes on just 0.3 per cent of all the people who reach out to them: Crucially, Epidemic Sound's user-friendly licensing model allows brands and creators to access music with full usage rights while providing tools to elevate their content. The company partners with artists across all genres, providing them with financial support through a 50/50 royalty split, upfront payments, and bonuses. Artists can also explore multiple projects simultaneously, making Epidemic Sound a flexible and artist-centered platform. The secrets to scale. Epidemic Sound's subscription/licensing model gives unlimited downloads and global rights. I was curious how the company ensures this remains financially viable as usage scales across usergenerated content? For Höglund, understanding your customers better than anyone else is pivotal. The team realised pretty early on that by meeting the soundtracking needs of the best creators in the world, it drove standalone listening of its tracks on streaming platforms where it creates additional revenue for them and their artists via the 50/50 royalty split. "Scale powers this ecosystem where creators flourish, artists thrive, and our business grows." It's enabled Epidemic Sound to go from zero online footprint, to hitting 1.5 billion daily views across online video platforms in 2020, to over three billion daily views today, while more than doubling its revenue, and diversifying and growing its artist remuneration model." Fairer remuneration for artists. Epidemic Sound has a strong track record of innovative remuneration models for artists, including pioneering a 50/50 royalty split and an annual Soundtrack Bonus that has grown in step with the company's success. "We're also boosting bonus payouts by 43 per cent overall in 2026, including a new $1 million remuneration pool to reward AI-related adaptation, and an increase in the annual Soundtrack Bonus from $3.7 million to $4.2 million," shared Höglund. And for Epidemic Sound, this is just the start as it rolls out a completely new way of soundtracking; one that's super dialled in to creators' needs and one that enhances human creativity, not replaces it. "We're big believers in the value of feedback from our creative communities - it's played a central role in how we've continued to develop our Adapt tool since launch to give more creative control. Get out there, try out Studio, and let us know what you think!" shared Höglund. "AI should empower, not replace, human creativity" Further, Höglund believes that the company is in "the perfect position to strengthen how we continue to capture value from scale: we continue to offer market-leading licensing safety, while leading the charge with AI-powered soundtracking for creators, and working directly with our artists to innovate in a way that empowers and rewards human creativity." "We believe AI should empower, not replace, human creativity. Studio embodies that belief, giving creators more time and freedom to focus on their stories while continuing to help artists reach an audience and earn from their craft." He asserts that transparency is central to this - creators using Epidemic Sound always know when a soundtrack has been AI-assisted versus human-created, and all music and sound effects originate from its verified catalogue of human-made works. "Our technology is designed to empower creativity: AI provides speed and cohesion, while clear labeling, licensing, and rights management ensure both creators and artists understand how content is made, used, and credited. Every track remains legally safe, properly attributed, and financially rewarding for the artists behind it. Creators know that when they adapt a track with our AI-powered tools, the artist's rights stay protected and they always have the ability to opt out of having their tracks adapted."