Christian Popescu From Audio Network: Music That Can Do More Than Background

Mr. Popescu, why is your heart burning for the topic of music in the media?

Christian Popescu: I’ve been in the media industry for a long time, previously mainly in photography. But music is overarching – it’s the main component in all communication, whether in advertising, radio, film or TV. Imagine social media without music. Music moves people, it never leaves you untouched.

Audio Network is much more than a classic “stock music“-platform. How would you describe the company’s identity?

Popescu: We are celebrating an anniversary this year: our two founders Robert Hurst and Andrew Sunnucks started Audio Networks 25 years ago. Both are orchestral musicians and their basic idea was to compose music that has a longer half-life than the typical hits in the charts. If you take a look at our catalog, you will quickly notice that our titles have not lost any of their relevance. What also sets us apart is the rights situation: we produce the music ourselves in collaboration with the artists – and accordingly hold all the master rights.

Music of the highest quality and exciting musical talents

What exactly is the Audio Network concept?

Popescu: The collaboration with the artists is very intensive and on an equal footing. We work with talents who meet the needs we have discussed. Our quality standards are very high from day 1. We specifically look for the best artists, use the best technologies and produce in the best studios. For example, we produce up to 200 days a year at Abby Road Studios in London.

Our customers can find the tracks in our music library after production – it now contains over 300,000 tracks from more than 800 genres. They currently prefer the classic subscription model and pay an annual fee for the use of our tracks.

How much AI is in the music?

Popescu: We categorically rule out AI in our music productions. You can be 100 percent sure that our music was composed, produced and mastered by humans. This is now almost a unique selling point that we consciously bring to the market and for which we receive a lot of positive feedback.

We are already using AI on our platform – in an intuitive search that enables our customers to find exactly what they want quickly and easily. Our customers then enter a general search term, such as “music for the next Christmas campaign”, plus the desired target group – and they get results they can work with. It works really well and we’re proud of it.

Munich as an attractive market and vibrant media location

You manage the DACH/NL business from Munich, but Audio Network also has offices in London, Paris, New York, Toronto and Sydney. How close are the ties to Bavaria as a media location?

Popescu: Munich was deliberately chosen as a location when the company was founded because the majority of our TV and film customers were primarily based here at the time. This is still the case today, even though many of our competitors have now moved to Berlin. However, Munich is still an important film and TV location, where many of our clients come from, and has a vibrant media landscape. We try to cultivate our network in the creative landscape with targeted events. Even though we are sub-publishers of Audio Network Limited, we enjoy a lot of trust and work largely independently at our German location.

Who exactly are Audio Network’s customers?

Popescu: Originally, the film and TV world was our main customer base and it is still very strong. Our tracks are often found in trailers or film, series and movie productions. You can hear us in documentary productions, for example. More and more, however, our customers also include very different companies, for example from the cosmetics industry. They choose our music for campaigns on social media or commercials, for example, and use it to emotionally charge their brands.

Audio Network produces its music at Abbey Road Studios in London for up to 200 days a year / Photo: Audio Network

How important is it as a music licensing platform to capture trends?

Popescu: Above all, it is important to capture trends that won’t disappear again straight away. We try to keep our finger on the pulse of the times without depicting anything too transient. Of course, analyzing our data helps us a lot in this respect. What do our customers download? What sounds are trending on social media?

And which trends will occupy you the most in the coming years?

Popescu : Plain and simple: AI. My LinkedIn bubble, for example, is almost exclusively about AI-generated music, its influence and its risks. Everything is moving so fast at the moment that I don’t think it’s possible to say how the market will have developed in six months’ time. Initially, we were very worried about this, but we are now noticing that customers are consciously turning away from it. They prefer to listen to music that is made by people.

Development towards becoming a solution provider: The service concept is growing

If we imagine Audio Network in five years’ time – what will the company look like?

Popescu: The journey is moving away from the classic music publisher towards a solution provider. This means that we don’t just offer our customers music, but also support them in their individual search. I could also imagine expanding our range and offering voiceover, voice cloning and editing with the help of AI tools.

We have something new planned for this year: For the first time, we are producing German-language music. We are also increasingly looking for young talent here in Germany and want to expand our local network – both in terms of creatives and our customers.