Musixmatch Buys Music Reports and Songdex in First Deal, Backed by Tikehau Capital

Musixmatch has acquired Music Reports, Inc., the Los Angeles-based owner of the Songdex copyright registry, in a deal announced October 19. Financial terms were not disclosed. The acquisition is the first in Musixmatch's 16-year history, according to the company, and Tikehau Capital provided financing for the transaction. The details were reported by EIN Presswire.

Musixmatch's First Acquisition and the Songdex Deal

Musixmatch is a Bologna-based music data technology company that licenses synchronized lyrics to streaming platforms and sells subscriptions to creators and consumers. Music Reports, founded in 1995, is based in Los Angeles with operations in London and Nashville. Blokur, the London-based music data and licensing platform owned by Music Reports, also passes to Musixmatch.

Musixmatch described the acquisition as "its biggest step yet: transforming the company from a leader in lyrics and music data to a full-stack rights and royalties platform." The company said the deal will establish "the world's most comprehensive registry of music copyright information." The combined business brings together Musixmatch's music intelligence technology and dataset, Music Reports' Songdex registry, and Blokur's rights-matching technology. The deal includes Music Reports' Cuetrak software, which helps streaming services and broadcasters produce cue sheets for music used in audiovisual content.

"Music is being created and used faster than the industry can track it, and AI is only accelerating the trend," said Max Ciociola, Founder and CEO of Musixmatch. "When no one can identify who wrote a song, who owns it, or who should be paid, creators lose."

Tikehau Capital previously secured senior financing for Musixmatch in July 2024. Tikehau Capital's weekly share repurchases are regulatory filings, not material per-share value drivers, and its €190 million buyback mandate prioritizes growth deals over cancellation, with 6.9M shares reserved for M&A and investments, according to AInvest.

Musixmatch's Funding and Partnership Records

According to akta.pro company records, Musixmatch has seven funding rounds on record, including a 2022-07 private equity round led by TPG, a 2020-08 secondary market round, a 2016-07 series unknown of $5 million with 3 investors, and a 2014-03 series unknown of $7.6 million with 6 investors. The same records list total funding of $16.8 million, a revenue estimate of $50 million-$100 million, and a valuation estimate of $250 million-$500 million. Musixmatch's AI licensing deals with Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, and Warner Chappell Music provide access to over 15 million musical works.

Sentinel, Pro for Labels and the Suno Deal

Musixmatch launched Pro for Labels on September 2, a hub for record labels to manage and distribute lyrics at scale, with over 400 labels onboarded during beta, Music Business Worldwide reported. Musixmatch signed Suno as the first customer of Sentinel, its copyright detection service that monitors AI prompts and outputs to identify copyrighted compositions and lyrics, Music Business Worldwide reported in August. In September, Musixmatch's CEO Massimo Ciociola said lyrics are becoming the LLM of the music industry, with Sentinel returning verdicts in under 100 milliseconds, Music Business Worldwide reported.

What Comes Next for the Combined Platform

Musixmatch said the deal lays "the foundation for the next generation of agentic royalty management," where AI agents "can identify, match, and reconcile music use continuously, with people in control." Evercore served as financial advisor to Musixmatch, while Ropes & Gray LLP, Reed Smith LLP, and Legance served as its legal counsel.