Hi Pex Partner,

Today, we announced our new product Pex Search, which allows music companies and content platforms to plug into Pex identification technology directly. While building this solution, we learned there are key issues with other ACR technologies that allow large amounts of modified audio to be distributed and streamed. If the creators of these modified songs didn’t license the original tracks, this is music fraud that could be diverting millions in royalties away from rightsholders. We recently analyzed major DSPs and what we found was shocking.

From our analysis, we estimate at least 1% of all songs on DSPs are modified audio. We’re talking more than 1M unlicensed, manipulated songs that are diverting revenue away from rightsholders this very minute.

We’re going to share snippets of the modified audio we’ve found over the next few weeks. Here's five examples of modified audio that we easily identified, and that should have been caught before making it onto streaming platforms:

“Without Me” - Original recording by Halsey
Manipulated audio: “Without Me (Sped Up Version)” - by Fly By Nightcore
5,949,502 streams on Spotify as of 10/25/23
Currently live on: Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Tidal

“Substance” – Original recording by Greedo
Manipulated audio: “Substance (Sped Up) (Remix)” – by DJ Frontero
10,526,244 streams on Spotify as of 10/25/23
Currently live on: Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Tidal

“Something Just Like This” - Original recording by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay
Manipulated audio: “Something Just Like This” - by Fly By Nightcore
12,412,976 streams on Spotify as of 10/25/23
Currently live on: Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Tidal

“Back to Black” - Original recording by Amy Winehouse
Manipulated audio: “Back to Black (sped up nightcore) (Remix)” - by Xanemusic & Kevoxx
1,127,432 streams on Spotify as of 10/31/23
Currently live on: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal

“Tere Te” - Original recording by AP Dhillon and Gurinder Gill
Manipulated audio: “Tere Te - Slowed & Reverb” - by Kaushal Shekhawat
2,203,385 streams on Spotify as of 10/25/23
Currently live on: Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music, Apple Music

We’ll be sharing more data every Wednesday while working with distributors and DSPs to stop unlicensed modified audio and revenue loss. Sign up to check your catalog for modified audio and subscribe to our regular updates. 

See you next week,

The Pex Team