Italy-based lyrics and music data company Musixmatch has acquired Music Reports, Inc., the United States company behind the Songdex copyright registry, in its first acquisition in its 16-year history.
The deal, announced October 19, also transfers Blokur, a London-based music data and licensing platform owned by Music Reports, to Musixmatch. Financial terms were not disclosed. Financing was provided by Tikehau Capital.
Musixmatch described the acquisition as “its biggest step yet: transforming the company from a leader in lyrics and music data to a full-stack rights and royalties platform.” The Bologna, Italy-based company said the deal will establish “the world’s most comprehensive registry of music copyright information.”
Strategic rationale#
Musixmatch said the acquisition responds to pressure on music rights systems as artificial intelligence (AI) changes how music is created and used. The company stated that systems used to identify music, track ownership, and distribute royalties “were not built for today’s scale and complexity.”
“When recordings cannot be accurately matched to their underlying compositions and rightsholders, licenses may not be secured and royalty payments can be delayed or lost,” Musixmatch said.
The combined business brings together Musixmatch’s music intelligence technology and dataset, Music Reports’ Songdex registry, and Blokur’s rights-matching technology. Musixmatch said it will combine its data and technology with Songdex to create “a comprehensive metadata layer that connects recordings, compositions, and rights information across the global music ecosystem.”
Musixmatch said the resulting data will give it “the most accurate music identification and rights matching in the industry.” The company expects the deal to make it “faster and simpler for anyone who creates, distributes, or uses music to establish who owns it, whether it is licensed, and to make sure the people behind it get paid.”
Max Ciociola, founder and CEO of Musixmatch, said: “Music is being created and used faster than the industry can track it, and AI is only accelerating the trend. When no one can identify who wrote a song, who owns it, or who should be paid, creators lose.”
“Bringing Music Reports into Musixmatch unites two of the industry’s most trusted datasets on one platform,” Ciociola added. “Our goal is simple: every use of music identified, every owner known, every creator paid.”
What the combined platform includes#
The acquisition extends Musixmatch’s rights business beyond lyrics into mechanical, sync, print, and performance rights. The company said this makes it “a comprehensive rights-administration platform for the global music industry.”
The deal includes Music Reports’ Cuetrak software, which helps streaming services and broadcasters produce cue sheets for music used in audiovisual content.
Musixmatch said the combined platform will span:
- Rights administration
- Royalty processing
- Cue sheets
- Licensing
- Lyrics
The company added that the deal lays “the foundation for the next generation of agentic royalty management,” where AI agents “can identify, match, and reconcile music use continuously, with people in control.”
Musixmatch’s recent moves#
Musixmatch said it works with more than 250,000 rights owners and music publishers worldwide and nearly three million songwriters, as well as digital services including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon Music.
In an interview last month, Ciociola said: “We have evolved into a kind of fintech company: our main job is processing royalties.” He added: “The focus now is becoming a multi-agent rights administration company, helping protect rightsholders, and helping songwriters protect their own work.”
- October 2025: signed AI licensing deals with Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, and Warner Chappell Music covering more than 15 million musical works. The agreements support the development of non-generative AI tools.
- March 2026: launched Sentinel, a real-time music copyright detection service for AI and user-generated content platforms.
- August: AI music company Suno became Sentinel’s first customer.
- September: rolled out Musixmatch Pro for Labels, a hub for record companies to manage and distribute lyrics.
TPG Growth acquired a controlling stake in Musixmatch in July 2022. Tikehau Capital previously secured senior financing for Musixmatch in July 2024.
Musixmatch and TPG also face a lawsuit from rival lyrics provider LyricFind, which claims that Musixmatch’s exclusive lyrics licensing agreement with Warner Chappell Music breaches United States antitrust law. Musixmatch has said the claim is “without merit.”
Music Reports background#
Founded in 1995, Music Reports is based in Los Angeles, with operations in London and Nashville. Private equity firm MidOcean Partners acquired Music Reports in 2020 from ABRY Partners and the company’s co-founders, Ronald Gertz and Douglas Brainin. Music Reports acquired Blokur in January 2024.
Evercore served as financial advisor to Musixmatch. Ropes & Gray LLP, Reed Smith LLP, and Legance served as legal counsel.
