It is seen as a bit of a controversial topic but AI now seems to be popping up everywhere in music in various ways.
As streamer giants like Spotify continue to roll out new features for users to create their own AI-generated remixes from participating artists, start-ups like AI music generation platform Suno are raising hefty sums of cash of up to $400m.
That’s all before we even get to AI-generated musicians like Eddie Dalton now topping the charts.
One person who’s had a front row seat to some of that industry change in music tech is exited founder Hazel Savage, now a principal at Leeds Angels after selling her AI music curation platform Musiio to SoundCloud in 2022.
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And she’s got big opinions about some of that change when it comes to the use of AI in music.
“I think generative AI is very controversial, which is where you’re fully generating whole new parts of music, a voice, or entire songs. Usually those AI models have been trained on existing works, often without permission, so that’s where the challenge comes in, where people feel like their work is being used and they’re not being compensated,” she tells Prolific North.
“I agree with that. I’m not a big fan of generative AI and it’s not something I invest in. I’ve only had one of my investments go bankrupt and guess what space that was in – generative AI. So I don’t touch that space anymore.
“The stuff that I am very interested in, and the companies that I’ve invested in, are these companies where they’re using AI as a tool, or using AI to automate part of a process that’s either not possible for humans to do, or not something enjoyable. That’s a bit like what my company, Musiio, did.”
And that’s exactly what Savage found herself doing back in 2018 with the Musiio platform she co-founded, after spotting an opportunity to use AI as a tool to automate more laborious tasks like audio tagging and curating playlists in the industry.
It followed more than a decade of working in the sector which has taken her across the world, from stacking CDs on the shelves at HMV while at university, to helping build Shazam in its early years and later working for major music companies like Universal.
The scale of the problem became obvious as music platforms and labels struggled to keep up with traditional methods of organising and categorising music.
“When I worked in a record store, I used to put CDs on the shelves and record executives decided what was going to get printed. Then in 2018, Spotify put out a press release saying 30,000 songs a day were being uploaded to the platform.
“That was a ‘spark’ moment for me. I thought: ‘hang on, when I worked at a record store five CDs were being released a week. Now there are 30,000 songs a day?!’”
But her connection to music goes much deeper than her career in music tech.
The path to SoundCloud acquisition
Long before founding Musiio, Savage was performing in all-girl punk band called Ginkinta.
“I was around 22 and my number one goal was to be a famous rock star, but it turned out I was always just a little bit better at the business side of things.”
While her rock star ambitions have since taken a backseat, that musical tie is pretty key to her story as a founder and the growth of Musiio.
“Having been a musician myself, it has always been like the ultimate validation of anything else that I do in the tech space, especially when you’re working with other artists’ music and their performances. Nothing says I understand the problem, and I want to work on it with you, more than having been there and done it yourself, right?”
“Being an artist is not an essential part of being a music tech entrepreneur – but it definitely helps. It’s definitely a bit of a cheat code. So working in all the various roles that I did, and seeing the world of music ‘undercover’, it was a bit of a speed run, taking Musiio in four years from idea to acquisition.”
Although that four year journey to acquisition may seem ‘quick’ to some, for Savage, the business was built one step at a time.
“The company started up after I went on a UK-based incubator called Entrepreneur First and they had a branch in Singapore. I remember thinking: ‘Ok, I’ll just go to the kick-off weekend and if that isn’t any good, then I won’t do it’. Then I thought ‘Ok, if I don’t meet a co-founder, then I don’t have to keep doing it’, but then I met a co-founder.
“All the time I just kept building on the next step. It really was just about putting one foot in front of the other, looking at the next thing we needed to do, then going and achieving that. Before you know it, you have a solid basis for a company.”
Musiio worked with record labels and streaming services, using AI to tag, organise and curate music tracks through its search and playlist generation tools.
One of its customers was SoundCloud, working with Musiio for a year and a half before the music giant made an offer to buy the business. For Savage, it wasn’t entirely unexpected.
“That wasn’t unusual. Music tech has insanely high acquisition rates. In fact, I even said to my co-founder Aron Pettersson within the first few days of us working together, that we’d probably get a lot of offers to buy us. They’d definitely want to keep the tech, and they may or may not want to keep me, because that’s just how the industry is.”
And she wasn’t wrong, as SoundCloud was the third serious acquisition offer the company received. But once a deal was agreed, the process was far from straightforward.
“It actually took about eight months to do all the paperwork. It was very, very stressful. They wanted to keep the whole team and they wanted to move everyone over to their European offices, which is why I ended up moving back to the UK from Singapore.”
The acquisition ultimately brought her back to the UK after years living overseas, with SoundCloud giving the team the option of relocating to either its London or Berlin offices.
Originally from Darlington, she chose to settle in Leeds.
“It’s only two hours on the train to London from Leeds and I only had to go in once or twice a week. For me, it was about the quality of life. I lived in London in my early 20s and it was great, but I just don’t go out five or six nights a week anymore.
“I don’t need to be paying that insane London premium when I prefer more of my own company and solitude these days, even for an extrovert!”
The “natural next step” into angel investing and lessons from selling a business
After selling Musiio, she stayed on at SoundCloud as VP of Music Intelligence for three years, helping to integrate Musiio’s technology into the wider business.
“They were a fantastic team. I always said, as long as I was enjoying it and I was having a great time, I was very happy to be working there. But after three years, as most entrepreneurs do, I started thinking about what else I could do.”
Rather than jumping into building another company, she decided to move to the other side of the table into the world of angel investing.
Savage has since built up a portfolio of more than 11 investments across music, audio and AI businesses, including un:hurd, AudioShake and mayk.it, while also becoming a principal at Leeds Angels.
“Once you’ve had a successful exit, you look at what you want to do, and what impact you want to have with the money you’ve made.
“For me, I love to invest in other companies that are doing similar things to me, where I can really see that the market’s going to work out, and where the founders are talented. It felt like a natural next step to get into angel investing.”
While many angel investors might focus on a particular geography, Savage takes a broader approach although she says she has huge respect for groups that focus on regional growth, pointing to Lancashire-based Fhunded Angels as an example for its work to boost the profile of businesses regionally.
“They only invest in businesses in Lancashire and I really respect that because they’re trying to grow the local economy and retain young tech talent in the area. I can definitely understand those angel groups who are more location specific.”
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On the types of businesses she’s interested in, they’re definitely not generative AI focused as we mentioned earlier, but there does need to be a ‘hook’.
“I need to understand what I’m investing into and secondly, you look at whether you can be of value to the companies you’re working with. You’re trying to be a multiplier and make sure that every decision you make helps the founder become better, get more opportunities. So one element is geographic, but that’s not the only element for me.”
And diversity is another key theme running through her portfolio, something she is very passionate about.
“I’m super, super proud because over 50% of my portfolio is female founders, and 50% black founders. I love to invest in diverse companies, usually they’ve got a bit of an AI or an audio slant, which tends to be the thing I look for.”
Looking back on her own founder journey, there is little she would change but she is now armed with a handful of lessons she now shares with founders.
“When we raised money at Musiio our seed round was about $2m Singapore dollars in 2019. We raised pre-revenue, and between raising and our first customer it was around six months and it was one of the most stressful six months of my entire life.
“As much as a load of people think raising pre-revenue sounds like the dream, it’s actually a bit of a nightmare, so I’d avoid that if I was to do it again. But maybe if I had waited six months, I might not have got the offer for the money at all. That said, we had a positive outcome, so I’d probably not change any one thing!”
Another lesson emerged during Musiio’s acquisition process, when she discovered a clause buried in a commercial contract, which “nearly killed the whole sale”.
“I did all the right things but I didn’t pick that up, the lawyers didn’t, and even the clients really didn’t pick it up, which is what caused trouble down the line. A broader learning is to make sure all of your documents are right to the best of your ability!”
That takes us right back to today, where her focus is now split between investing, mentoring founders and helping support the next generation of start-ups through Leeds Angels. She’s even recently dabbled back into music herself, releasing a dance track “for a bit of fun”.
“We’re super busy and there’s lots of stuff happening with Leeds Angels. On the investment side, I’ve done three investments this year, which I’m really excited about.”
Hazel Savage will also be speaking at Lancashire’s annual innovation and technology festival LIFT 26 this Thursday, where she’ll be sharing more insights from both sides of the table at Burnley’s Turf Moor.
