Downtown subsidiary AdRev acquires analytics firm Simbals

Digital rights management provider AdRev has acquired France-based audio and metadata analytics company Simbals.

The deal integrates Simbals’ patented audio fingerprinting technology and machine learning-driven analytics into AdRev’s existing technology. It also brings Simbals’ team of audio and signal analysis researchers and scientists in-house, along with key technology talent.

AdRev became a subsidiary of Downtown Music Holdings in 2019 following Downtown’s acquisition of its parent company AVL Digital Group and its portfolio of music distribution, rights management and artist services businesses, also including CD Baby, DashGo and Soundrop.

Matthias Robine, founder, researcher and product director of Simbals, said: “All of us at Simbals are excited to build on our existing, collaborative relationship with AdRev. We develop innovative solutions for automatic audio identification, personalised music recommendation and prediction of music-related trends. AdRev is the perfect partner to grow and provide our disruptive solutions to the global music industry.”

Founded by a team of researchers from the University of Bordeaux, Simbals’ audio content recognition enables the accurate identification at scale of music used in various video and audio formats, as well as in live performances or on streaming platforms. Simbals served as a key technology partner for AdRev prior to the acquisition.

“Matthias, Pascal, Pierre and Florian have built an incredible suite of technology and tools that help empower a thriving, democratic music ecosystem,” said Noah Becker, founder and president of AdRev. “With the new user generated content platforms regularly emerging, and the need for platforms to meet the changing demands of copyright legislation around the world, the technology developed by Simbals is more important than ever. The entire Simbals team are brilliant, humble, and hard working, and I couldn’t be more pleased to officially welcome them to AdRev.” 

The acquisition adds several respected audio and signal analysis researchers and data scientists to AdRev’s team for expanded research and development capabilities. Future applications of their research could include music creation, storage and archiving.