by Liam Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier
Music-licensing platform Melodie’s AI search tool (powered by Cyanite) allows filmmakers to find perfect pieces of human-made music.
Melodie – founded by a family of Australian sound designers and composers, with the goal of helping content creators find the perfect music for their films and videos – has launched a new AI-powered update to refine their music search.
A new service known as Natural Language Search allows users to make precise, personalised search queries to precisely suit the mood and setting of their visual content. With every search result providing users with human-made music, Melodie’s new update facilitates tailor-made searches for text-based prompts such as ‘riding a bike through Paris’.
Every time their work is downloaded, the human composers get paid for their music. In the wake of industry fears of artificial intelligence putting real creatives out of work, Melodie places organic creativity – and appropriate remuneration – at the heart of everything that it does.
Melodie managing director Evan Buist finds that the biggest challenge for music licensing isn’t a lack of great music, “it’s finding the right track, cleared and ready to use.”
He likens the problem to finding a needle in a haystack, recalling the labour-intensive process of searching for the perfect music only for it to be locked behind a steep paywall. Melodie, he assures, is different.
“We provide exceptional music and have streamlined the licensing process. But until recently, discovery remained time-consuming, reliant on keyword tagging and musical knowledge. They say that talking about music is like dancing about architecture. Most creators aren’t musicologists. So, when I encountered AI technology that could interpret natural language prompts, like ‘modern vocal pop in the style of Katy Perry’, it felt like a breakthrough.”
This new discovery granted content creators and filmmakers alike to precisely describe their desired musical mood, to ask for what they needed in their own words. Now, Melodie puts the power of choice back into the hands of creatives to suit the mood, with keyword searches in relation to the overall vibe of a scene. Or even by asking for references to other genres.
“With natural language and similarity search,” Buist elaborates, “we’re removing the guesswork. You describe what you need, and Melodie surfaces the perfect human-made track in seconds.”
This curated approach to soundtracking your own films is a process that Buist regards as music supervision without the gatekeeping. “Faster, more intuitive, and built for creators who want to stay in flow.” Buist also makes sure to reiterate the direct link between tracks downloaded and remuneration for the artist that made it.
AI doesn’t always need to be the scary beacon of extinction for creatives just yet. Instead, it can be utilised to streamline the admin and leave more time for the all-important shooting, editing, and daydreaming.
