Cyanite and Pond5 sign new partnership to use AI tagging across Pond5’s 2 million-strong music catalogue

27 June 2023 - Press release

 

AI-powered music tagging and search company Cyanite has announced a new partnership with Pond5, the world's largest marketplace for royalty-free stock videos. Pond5, a Shutterstock subsidiary, also offers a vast collection of music tracks, sound effects, images, and more.

Under the new partnership, Cyanite will leverage its AI technology to improve tagging of Pond5’s growing 2 million-strong catalogue. The goal is to enrich existing metadata with a more consistent and objective music language in order to improve search recall and relevance. This will in turn drive increased user engagement and conversion. Creators from around the world will be able to quickly and easily discover the perfect music to be used in film and TV production, social media, advertising, gaming, and much more.

Pond5 is known industry-wide for the breadth and depth of its expansive music collection. With a pricing model led by artists, creators can source tracks for diverse needs, with a myriad of genres and price points on offer. Previously, Pond5 surfaced tracks for interested buyers by leaning primarily on contributor-generated tags. It needed to improve tagging and search viability by expanding on generalisability and objectivity to consistently provide the right music for search queries. The improved tagging strategy powered by Cyanite has allowed Pond5 to more accurately categorize content whilst enabling users to efficiently search for content.

Markus Schwarzer, CEO, Cyanite, comments: “If you start an AI tagging company, you dream of the chance to categorize a catalogue of 2 million songs where you can really show what the technology is capable of. It’s not a trivial task in terms of the technical processing AND accuracy of AI tagging. A lot of things can go wrong potentially even harming Pond5's ability to execute its core business. We are very happy that Pond5 put their trust in us to take on this important task and even more that the results are so convincing. With this collaboration, we aim to simplify the complexity of music search, empowering content creators and customers to quickly and efficiently discover the perfect music for their needs.”

Ben Remetz, VP Product, Pond5 says: "At Pond5, we're passionate about empowering content creators and leading the industry through innovative technology and a commitment to quality. Our partnership with Cyanite is just one example of how we're always striving to provide our customers with the best possible experience."

Pond5 uploads over 2.5 million assets across all media each month – its collection includes 36 million licensable video clips, and over 10 million customers licensing content from 185 countries, allowing Pond5 to pay out over $100 million in royalties to artists. The platform's customers include major media companies such as Netflix, Disney, NBC, BBC, Discovery Channel, and The Wall Street Journal.

Cyanite was launched in 2019 in Germany and has already tagged over 15 million songs worldwide for customers such as BMG, Synchtank, and APM Music. Cyanite recently launched Free Text Search, the first search engine that can instantly translate complex text input into its closest musical equivalents. The partnership with Pond5 is another major milestone toward the company’s vision of creating a universal intelligence for music.