HYBE, dwelling to BTS, buys pretend voice AI firm Supertone

HYBE, the publicly-traded music big behind superstars BTS, is in ‘diversification mode‘ to change into much less financially reliant on its flagship act.

Strikes hinting at a broadening of HYBE’s technique in latest instances embody the enlargement of its video games enterprise, and its $1 billion acquisition of Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings.

HYBE has additionally introduced new high-priority artists in 2022, together with NewJeans and Japanese boy band &TEAM.

The South Korean firm even launched a world audition in June “for a boy group that may lead the subsequent technology of Ok-pop”.

May a significant push into synthetic intelligence be subsequent on the agenda?

Final February, HYBE invested USD $3.6 million right into a Korea-based AI sound firm referred to as Supertone.

Now, HYBE has reportedly upped its funding within the startup, by absolutely buying it for 45 billion South Korea Received (approx $31.75m at present change charges).

That’s in keeping with Korea-based information publication Pulse Information, the net dwelling of South Korea’s largest home enterprise newspaper, Maeil Enterprise Newspaper.

Pulse stories that HYBE’s authentic funding noticed it purchase an 18% stake in Supertone – and that HYBE has now acquired the remaining 82% curiosity within the firm.

On the time of publication, HYBE had not responded to MBW’s request for remark.

Based in 2020, Supertone claims to have the ability to create “a hyper-realistic and expressive voice that [is not] distinguishable from actual people”.

The startup generated world media consideration in January 2021 with its so-called Singing Voice Synthesis (SVS) know-how.

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You would possibly do not forget that the corporate used this tech to “resurrect” the voice of South Korean people celebrity Kim Kwang-seok, with the next AI-generated voice debuted on Korean tv present Competitors of the Century: AI vs Human (see above).

Talking final yr, Supertone COO, Choi Hee-doo, defined to CNN that the corporate’s know-how realized 100 songs by 20 singers to refine its fashion, after which realized 10 particular songs by Kim Kwang-seok.

Choi Hee-doo additionally claimed on the time that Supertone’s tech is able to mimicking the artist’s voice effectively sufficient to go off as the actual factor.

He defined additional that Supertone’s tech can be utilized for content material creation for dwelling artists, too, and the hypothetical instance he gave final yr would possibly simply supply an perception into why HYBE has reportedly acquired his firm for tens of millions of {dollars}.

“For instance, BTS is basically busy as of late, and it’d be unlucky if they will’t take part in content material resulting from lack of time,” Choi Hee-doo defined to CNN final yr.

He added: “So, if BTS makes use of our know-how when making video games or audiobooks or dubbing an animation, as an example, they wouldn’t essentially should report [that audio live] in individual.”

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When HYBE (then Huge Hit Leisure) initially invested in Supertone, we requested if it might quickly create “hyper-realistic and expressive” clone voices for BTS members themselves, permitting HYBE to launch BTS music (or at the very least BTS content material), even with out the band actively contributing vocals to that music?

This query is much more related right this moment following the information from this summer season that BTS can be taking a break to pursue solo tasks.

We made the purely speculative suggestion on the time that it’s not fully out of the realm of chance in right this moment’s leisure enterprise, particularly contemplating music streaming big Spotify lately acquired a startup that created an AI audio mannequin primarily based on Val Kilmer’s voice for Prime Gun Maverick.

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It’s value noting right here that HYBE’s “Oblique Artist Involvement” – revenue-generating tasks that use an artist’s model/likeness, with out the precise artist needing to be concerned – turned the corporate’s main income driver in 2020 within the absence of dwell reveals throughout the pandemic.

In FY 2021, a yr through which HYBE revenues surpassed $1 billion in revenues for the primary time, the corporate’s greatest natural income driver was, as soon as acquire, its “Artist Oblique” enterprise, accounting for greater than 60% of the corporate’s revenues.

These “Artist Oblique” enterprise actions generated 733 billion KRW ($640m) final yr – up 72.8% YoY (see beneath).

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This ‘Artist Oblique-Involvement’ enterprise was HYBE’s fundamental income driver in each quarter of 2021, together with Q1 (ending March 31), Q2 (the three months to the top of June), Q3 (the three months to the top of September) and This fall (ending December 31).

It was solely overtaken by the corporate’s ‘Artist Direct Involvement’ enterprise line in Q1 2022.Music Enterprise Worldwide