Oscar Höglund
As the Co-Founder and CEO of Epidemic Sound, Swedish entrepreneur Oscar Höglund is in the process to soundtrack the world. Our CEO Ben got the chance to sit with him at Slush 2022 and get his insights on AI, entrepreneurship, and the future of the music industry.
TLTess Lawrence
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Updated
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2 min read
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Highlights
- Epidemic Sound is his 6th company as an adult with a red thread through his previous ventures of storytelling.
- There were issues with how musicians constantly lost the battle with royalties and creative rights and the issue with being able to use music in media without copyright or legal strikes.
- I don’t like being part of a discourse which idolizes launching many companies. It’s a badge of honor at places like Slush where people equate numbers with value whereas, in reality, it’s quality. Do a few things, but do them really really well.
- You need to be religiously hard on yourself when putting your band (founders) together.
- Epidemic Sound is now a unicorn. They crossed that line about 2 years ago when the value exceeded 1 billion dollars, and now the company is comprised of almost 550 people.
- Problems are not the bug, they are the feature and that’s where Epidemic comes in.
- The value of AI in music does not replace creators but shifts the nature of the relationship.
- Allowing any app developer to provide a dynamic feed of music to their users, Epidemic Sound Connect is the new API to soundtrack the world.
- If we want to soundtrack the world, we have to be serious about workflow. We insert ourselves into their workflow and we put that into an API that is completely free.
- Tip: Find something that fits into the intersection of what you are good at and what you enjoy, then double down on that. Be useful.
Find Oscar on:
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/oscar-höglund-10095620
- Twitter: twitter.com/oscarhoglund
Find Ben on:
- Sesamers: smrs.link/BenCostantini
- Twitter: @bencostantini
