When it comes to creating visual content, finding a proper soundtrack is as important as constructing and gathering materials for storytelling. However, due to copyright reasons, music licensing can be extremely complicated and time-consuming. To make the process easier, AV Mapping has come up with solutions to speed up music licensing for visual content creators around the world.
AV Mapping platform completes music licensing in 8 seconds
The Women Founders Pitch competition, organized by the Academy of Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), officially ended on November 5, 2021. Among the 10 finalists in the competition, AV Mapping founder and CEO Frinny Lee, who is only 28 years old, was honored with the Best Potential Entrepreneurs Award for creating an online music licensing platform.
AV Mapping founder and CEO Frinny Lee with a 2020 Red Dot Design Concept Award
Photo: Company
When asked about the inspirations behind the music licensing platform, Lee said she first became familiar with music composition and soundtracks from a job in her junior year in college. At the time, several visual content creators had asked her to help with music-related tasks, which led her to establish AV Mapping in early 2020 with some business partners and introduced the music licensing platform in August 2021.
The AV Mapping platform, which has 14 artificial intelligence (AI) models, maps video projects with music tracks from its music cloud based on film plots and text and image analyses. When a video is mapped with a proper soundtrack, the licensing works are done at the same time.
Lee pointed out that the traditional way of searching for music for a film is to listen to different songs from a music database before consulting the composers and copyright owners about using the selected songs. She said that the process usually takes several months but that it can be shortened to just eight seconds with the AV Mapping platform.
AV Mapping makes music licensing much faster and easier
Photo: Company
AV Mapping also enables music creators to set a price for their own works. Lee said that the current music mapping platforms on the market do not have much to offer to music creators but that the AV Mapping platform can serve as a source of income for them. She emphasized that anyone passionate about creating music are welcome to submit their works to the company's music cloud.
So far, the company's music cloud contains over 50,000 music tracks from the US, Italy and Japan, while a number of Taiwanese music companies have approached AV Mapping as well and the parties are close to signing contracts. Once partnerships are established between AV Mapping and Taiwan's music companies, the music cloud will contain over 100,000 music tracks from about 8,000 composers.
AV Mapping to focus on expanding audio/video interactive applications at CES 2022
The company's main motive to attend CES 2022 is to break into the US visual content creation market, said Lee. Although AV Mapping has partnered up with music composers from around the world, it has yet to establish a strong presence in the US content creation market, she continued, stressing that the US is essential to AV Mapping's expansion plan as it can help the company reach visual content creators from other countries more easily.
AV Mapping can be accessed through a website or a mobile app. The range of applications for the platform can be wider if it is paired with software. For example, the AI sound reflector on AV Mapping can detect an individual's body movements and play music that matches their mood if it is connected to a Bluetooth speaker.
AI sound reflector with charging stand
Photo: Company
Discovering more sound effect materials is the next step
Lee said AV Mapping is planning to improve its AI mapping platform in 2022 by optimizing existing functions and introducing an auto editing tool.
She said the company will begin exploring more sound effect materials to add to its music cloud over the next year. While Adobe and Sony source their sound effects from movies, AV Mapping mainly collects sound effects from nature and creations by musicians.
Through software integration, Lee has built a music licensing platform that offers customized solutions to satisfy consumers and creators on every level. The two-year-old startup believes its AI platform can benefit visual content creators, musicians and even consumers in the years to come.
