Epidemic Sound, the soundtracking platform for content creation, announced today that it has partnered with renowned producer, DJ, and electronic music pioneer Richie Hawtin. Beginning in Q2 2024, Hawtin will mentor four Epidemic Sound artists: dreem, The Yard Woman, Hampus Naeselius, and Maya Lourenço. He will offer guidance to help grow their careers in the industry while providing feedback on their release strategies and music, which is distributed to music streaming platforms and the company’s global community of content creators and brands.
The partnership between Hawtin and Epidemic Sound is founded on a mutual respect for creative innovation. Described as “one of the electronic dance world’s intellectual forces” by The New York Times, Hawtin has played a pivotal role in shaping the electronic music genre we know today. He was raised in Ontario, later moving to Detroit, and was at the forefront of the “minimal techno” movement in the 1990s, playing a vital role in driving the genre forward for over three decades through his music and his many technological innovations and accolades.
“I’ve long been impressed by how Epidemic Sound solved the complexity of music licensing – the base provided by their innovative approach has helped create new avenues for artists to distribute their music at scale, make a living in the music industry, and get the creative freedom they need,” said Richie Hawtin, British-Canadian electronic music producer and DJ. “The music industry desperately needs more alternatives for artists to thrive in the new music paradigm, and I’m excited to join forces with Epidemic Sound to support their talented artists in developing their sound and careers.”
Each of the artists Hawtin will mentor is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the electronic music world – experimenting with different genres and using innovative techniques to create different sounds. Mio Marberger, also known as dreem, is a versatile artist known for his eclectic blend of music genres like trap, pop, indie, and post-punk. An electronic prodigy in his own right, dreem’s upcoming collaboration with Hawtin is poised to be a groundbreaking fusion of talent and innovation. Similarly, The Yard Woman, hailing from Greece and based in London, transforms the electronic landscape into her personal playground, drawing inspiration from unexpected sources like pop, rock, and world music.
As classical music continues to rise in popularity and evolve as a genre, artist Hampus Naeselius marries electronic elements with classical music to create epic compositions for film, television, and advertising. With Richie Hawtin’s background in cinematic storytelling, this collaboration promises to push the boundaries of the classical genre. Lastly, DJ and producer Maya Lourenço (Parallax Deep and Blue Saga) is celebrated for their experimental soundscapes and innovative use of technology, making Hawtin an ideal collaborator.
“We are beyond excited to announce this partnership. Richie is an electronic music legend who has significantly impacted the global electronic music scene,” said John Cleary, Epidemic Sound’s Director of Americas and Global Music Recruitment. “By partnering with Richie, Epidemic Sound continues to fuel the next generation of artists and superstars and launch fantastic music to content creators, brands, listeners, and fans worldwide.”
After launching its music licensing solution in 2009, Epidemic Sound has seen the reach of its music grow exponentially, to the point where it now gains 2.5 billion daily views on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, providing a powerful distribution engine for its artists. Simultaneously, it has consistently developed its remuneration model – which now includes a 50/50 streaming royalty split, fixed fees per track, and a portion of a SEK 30 million soundtrack bonus – while offering freedom for artists to work non-exclusively on multiple projects at the same time, and facilitating creative collaborations with industry legends such as Hawtin.
In tandem with its commitment to fair compensation and artist collaborations, Epidemic Sound has demonstrated continuous innovation by introducing a range of cutting-edge tools and features that enhance the content creation experience. Notable developments include the ‘Music Recommender’ (2020), the ‘More of what you like’ feature (2020), and the audio-based search tool, ‘Epidemic Audio Reference (EAR)’ (2022). Most recently, Epidemic Sound unveiled Soundmatch: an AI-powered music discovery tool designed to save creators’ time and deliver vastly better results. These advancements showcase the company’s dedication to adapting to the ever-changing landscape and delivering exceptional experiences for both artists and content creators.
Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman is a genuine original. His critical acclaim spans the creative realm of the fine art community to the technological vanguard. As a performing artist, he is constantly pushing conceptual frontiers, creating ideas and experiences that would have seemed pure science fiction when he began his career in the emerging techno scene in Detroit. Hawtin is British-born and Canadian-raised. He is the business mind behind the labels Plus 8, MINUS Records and now From Our Minds. And, of course, he is Plastikman, perhaps that most of all, electronic musician par excellence, maintaining an underground agenda of avant-garde electronica over six albums. The New York Times called him “one of the electronic dance world’s intellectual forces,”. Raf Simons, Co-Creative Director at Prada, says he listens “to Richie Hawtin’s music like others listen to classical music”, calling him “the Kraftwerk of today”. In technology, it was Hawtin who led the shift from physical to digital DJing through the creation of Final Scratch; he was a co-founder of the pioneering Beatport digital store; head of his own music-technology fund Plus 8 Equities; and PLAYdifferently for innovative DJ and performance technologies with MODEL 1.
