Press release

Universal Music Group and Super Hi-Fi Partner to Enhance Listening Experiences on Digital Music Services

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Sponsored by Businesswire

Super
Hi-Fi
, the artificial intelligence-based programming company that
delivers innovative song transition, voice-over and artist interview
insertion solutions for music service providers, and Universal
Music Group (UMG)
, the world leader in music-based entertainment,
today announced a strategic partnership that will provide UMG’s artists
with new tools for engaging fans.

The companies will work together to introduce Super Hi-Fi’s powerful AI
tech to UMG’s partners across the globe and to co-develop new ways to
enhance and promote UMG artists and music. UMG will advise and support
new product development initiatives and help Super Hi-Fi attract new
business relationships.

Super Hi-Fi enables digital music services to leverage AI and deliver
enhanced listening experiences, including human-level song transitions,
precise crossfades, sonic leveling, truly gapless playback, audio
branding, audio ad stitching as well as other voice-based audio
solutions such as artist and track information and audio news headlines.
These advanced capabilities allow clients to produce high-quality,
personalized audio experiences at scale. Super Hi-Fi helps services
transform potentially mood-killing gaps of silence between songs into
personalized and relevant audio-based content, creating ideal
transitions between tracks.

“The digital music landscape is undergoing dramatic change as technology
creates demand for personalized music experiences across multiple
sectors. We are excited to work with UMG, a global leader in innovation
across the music industry, to advance this space,” said Super Hi-Fi’s
John Bolton. “With the shift to smart speakers and voice-controlled
experiences comes a completely anonymous listening experience with no
visual interface and no visual branding. Super Hi-Fi’s AI-powered
technologies create compelling, branded audio and production-quality
experiences, both of which are critical needs for music experience
providers to stay competitive.”

Michael Nash, UMG’s Executive Vice President of Digital Strategy, said,
“Universal Music is constantly focused on leveraging technology to
provide new experiences to music fans around the world. We’re excited
about the kind of in-stream audio enhancements made possible by Super
Hi-Fi, which can help artists deepen connections with fans and drive
longer-term engagement for digital music services.”

Developed by a team of digital music, technology and computational
musicology veterans, Super Hi-Fi’s suite of tools is available as an
ultra-high scale set of cloud services and APIs for easy integration
into existing music services, adding significant capability without
requiring a change to any existing music delivery architecture. Super
Hi-Fi’s services provide several solutions for reinventing the space
between the music, including:

  • Perfect Transitions: Dynamically creates the perfect transition
    between songs every single time.
  • Sonic Leveling: Automatically adjusts song volumes so listening
    sessions are smooth and consistent.
  • Gapless Playback: Eliminates the clicks and gaps between album
    tracks that some codecs create.
  • Ad Stitching: Seamlessly stitches audio ads into the music so
    they sound professional and fully polished.
  • Audio Brand Imaging: Brand-centric audio content blended
    directly into each listening feed to build powerful audio identities.
  • Custom Audio Content: Artist interviews; exclusive audio
    interstitials; sweepers and liners… like fully produced music
    experiences on steroids. And it’s all generated automatically for each
    listener.
  • Audio Experience (AX) Strategy & Development: Super Hi-Fi
    provides sonic design and audio production to help companies develop
    and implement their sonic identities.

About Super Hi-Fi

Super Hi-Fi is an artificial intelligence (AI) company focused
exclusively on the space between the songs to provide highly polished
and produced audio experiences for digital music services. The company’s
innovative and patented AI technology was designed from the ground up to
understand the nuances of a song with the expertise of a human DJ to
create perfect transitions that weave music, audio ads, and other
voice-based content into high quality productions. The result is a
seamless and scaled digital audio solution that transforms the pervasive
gaps of silence between songs into relevant and personalized content.

About Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group (UMG) is the world leader in music-based
entertainment, with a broad array of businesses engaged in recorded
music, music publishing, merchandising and audiovisual content in more
than 60 countries. Featuring the most comprehensive catalog of
recordings and songs across every musical genre, UMG identifies and
develops artists and produces and distributes the most critically
acclaimed and commercially successful music in the world. Committed to
artistry, innovation and entrepreneurship, UMG fosters the development
of services, platforms and business models in order to broaden artistic
and commercial opportunities for our artists and create new experiences
for fans. Universal Music Group is a Vivendi company. Find out more at: http://www.universalmusic.com.