In the near future, anyone will be able to learn their favorite song, no matter their instrument or skill level, by having instant access to sheet music, tabs, or a piano roll tailored to their needs. Soon, transcribing an inspiring moment of improv from a jam session will be as easy as it was to play it. Songscription is building this future by developing AI models that automate music transcription and arrangement.
To accomplish this goal, Songscription has raised a $5M round led by Reach Capital, which also led the startup's previous round. Other investors include Emerge Capital, 10x Founders, and Dent Capital, as well as angels such as former Guns N' Roses lead guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, who also serves as an advisor to the company.
"AI is transforming how people around the world create and enjoy music," says Jennifer Carolan, Co-founder and General Partner of Reach Capital: "With its powerful and precise AI transcription platform, Songscription enables musicians at all levels to learn, play, and share the songs they love."
This funding will go toward expanding the service's available instruments and notation outputs, and toward allowing users to automatically level and arrange pieces to fit their needs. The ultimate goal is to create a learning application that provides live performance feedback to users and helps them learn any song on any instrument. The results promise to transform music learning, teaching, and composition for instrumentalists, educators and composers.
"Most musicians can't easily find notation for the songs they actually want to play, especially as platforms like Spotify have made more niche artists' music increasingly accessible," explains Andrew Carlins, Co-founder and CEO of Songscription, "We're using AI to close that gap. Now artists can instantly create notation for their songs, allowing fans to connect in new ways."
Turning machine learning into musician learning
Here's how it works: Users simply upload an audio recording, and Songscription's proprietary AI models automatically convert it into musical notation and MIDI that accurately capture the performance. The platform currently supports piano, violin, flute, guitar, bass guitar, and trumpet, with more instruments on the way.
By transforming audio into precise sheet music, Songscription makes it possible for learners and musicians to create notation for any track, even niche or hard-to-find songs, in seconds. To train these models, the company has sourced material from the public domain, as well as from individual partnerships with artists and music businesses. They are also working with global music publishers to get access to more diverse data.
"I've been a huge supporter of Songscription since I first met the team," said Elizabeth Moody, advisor to Songscription and partner at Granderson Des Rochers. "For Songscription, ethics are top of mind, and we are working closely to sign deals with more industry players, including major publishers, to ensure their service honors all stakeholders."
She plays, she scores
Many musical works are written on the fly, based on a melody drifting in a songwriter's head or on a shared jam session. Songscription is poised to become a vital tool in the composition process, capturing these moments and rendering them as notation and MIDI so that they can be shared and recreated. As Songscription's services expand to transcribing an entire band (not just a single instrument), it will become an increasingly invaluable tool for musical ensembles as well.
"Songscription will change musicians' lives," shares Bumblefoot. "As a guitarist, our world is about getting the tabs and getting it right. For music teachers and players to have this assistance is phenomenal. Even us professionals can use it to save hours of time trying to recall what we played on albums we recorded years ago. It's a real game changer."