In a deal that could serve as a blueprint for how AI companies can successfully work with music rights holders, Hook, the artist-first, AI social music app that enables fans to easily create authorized remixes of popular music for use on social media, announced today a groundbreaking content deal with Downtown Music. This deal paves the way for millions of licensed recordings from Downtown’s extensive catalog to be added to Hook’s library and unlocks an entirely new revenue stream for Downtown’s global client base by providing compensation for user-generated (UGC) remixes of their songs, as well as ways to maximize the value of music on popular social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube. The announcement was made today by Hook Founder & CEO Gaurav Sharma.
“Downtown’s partners represent some of the most popular and impactful independent music in the world,” said Hook Founder & CEO Gaurav Sharma. “At Hook we are challenging the idea that music on social media and UGC only provides promotional value. We believe fan remixing and UGC is a new form of active music consumption and rights holders should be paid for it. This deal represents a new model for music, social, and AI. The team at Downtown understands our mission and we’re humbled by their support.”
Harmen Hemminga, Vice President, Product & Services Strategy, Downtown Music said, “Whilst music consumption continues to increase, broaden and localize, the trend of music “prosumption” on social platforms is ever-growing. Users of these platforms are including music in the experiences they share with others across a variety of contextual, inventive ways. Hook offers rights holders the ability to monetize these new and creative forms of use.”
Having built a global ecosystem across four core service divisions - Artist & Label Services, Distribution, Music Publishing, and Royalty & Financial Services - Downtown currently supports over 4 million artists and 5,000 business clients in 150 countries. Downtown clients won nearly 30% of the awards at the 2024 GRAMMYs.
A recent study by Pex estimated that nearly 40% of the music used on TikTok is modified in some way – sped up, slowed down, pitched up or down, or mashed up with another track. Currently, rights holders are not paid when their songs are remixed by creators on social media. There is also presently no way for artists and labels to effectively track these customized UGC mixes. Hook, which is slated to launch in beta next month, was conceived and developed to solve these problems, ensuring that artists and labels are fairly compensated when their music is remixed on Hook and posted to social media. Beyond paying artists for UGC remixes, Hook’s platform also gives artists and labels access to valuable information about how and where their augmented music created on Hook is being used.
As music consumption and discovery continue to shift to social media platforms, Hook is collaborating with artists, social media agencies, and record labels to build a platform that opens up new revenue opportunities for artists and creators. Using ethically trained, cutting-edge, AI technology, Hook’s innovative platform allows fans to express themselves with custom remixes of licensed music on social media, while Hook ensures that artists and content owners are capturing the full value of their intellectual property. Hook’s Founder and CEO Gaurav Sharma has a history of successfully building emerging music technology that integrates and aligns with the needs of the larger music industry. Sharma previously served as Chief Operating Officer for JioSaavn, India’s largest music streaming platform and one of the first platforms to secure global streaming licenses with record labels. Sharma and his team grew JioSaavn to more than 100 million active monthly users by the time he departed.
