InGrooves Gets a 3rd U.S. Patent

Ingrooves Music Group, a world leader in music distribution, marketing, and technology, announced today that the company has been issued the third in a series of U.S. patents that are transforming the way artists reach new audiences and sustain listeners in today’s engagement economy, increasing streams agnostic of platform. 

The new patent titled Artificial Intelligence Prediction of High-Value Social Media Audience Behavior for Marketing Campaigns extends the capability of Ingrooves’ opportunity detection technology into short-form video platforms spanning TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels. This technology enables artists and labels to analyze early trends in user-generated content that are highly likely to translate to digital streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.

The new invention spotlights UGC trends that are clear opportunities for growing audiences on subscription streaming DSPs even before significant growth on streaming DSPs occurs, increasing lead time for marketing activities that can amplify UGC-driven streaming growth. The technology analyzes UGC trends, looking for leading indicators of growth on subscription DSPs to signal opportunities to invest in cross-platform promotion that builds on a UGC trend or to hold off on a larger investment while nurturing the trend organically within the UGC platform.

“Our global music analytics teams, led by Dr. SK Sharma, are at the forefront of creating AI & ML innovations to power an entirely new way of marketing music,” said JT Myers, Co-CEO, Virgin Music Group, the parent company of Ingrooves. “These patented breakthroughs enable marketers to navigate through the noise and a sea of data to find new opportunities to increase streaming and build long-term fans in ways never before possible,” adds Nat Pastor, Co-CEO, Virgin Music Group.

"We are innovating to address two of the most important challenges artists and labels face in the music industry – getting their music heard and building loyal fan bases. With this invention we are taking the guesswork out of which UGC-driven events have the most potential to be powerful growth moments for marketers to act on. Our rigorously quantitative and highly scalable methods drive results that are both attributable and verifiable,” said Dr. SK Sharma, Ingrooves' Chief Analytics and AI Officer. “As always, we thank Sir Lucian Grainge and Boyd Muir for their longstanding dedication to innovation and supporting the entrepreneurial spirit necessary to expand beyond the current concept of music marketing.” 

A case study illustrates a marketing opportunity for the group Los Lara (Serca Music). In their case, the new technology detected a significant surge in TikTok views for the band’s track "Fumando Mota” and determined that this was likely to translate into growth at music streaming services. The team recommended a marketing campaign using FB/IG Smart Audience advertising and Playlist Optimizer to enhance organic discoverability and convert TikTok driven interest into streaming engagement. Working with Serca’s marketing director, the campaign was deployed via Ingrooves’ marketing suite. The four-week campaign drove a substantial uptick in active listeners, catalog streams, and streams of “Fumando Mota” on Spotify, which has now been streamed nearly 80 million times on the platform.

This latest technology builds on previous innovations in Ingrooves’ marketing suite that includes Songs on the Move, where marketers can see early signals of streaming growth and quickly make informed marketing decisions, and Smart Audience advertising used to deploy social media advertising campaigns to high-value audiences that are more likely to stream a particular piece of music based on streaming behavior. 

The issuance of a third patent in just two years reinforces Ingrooves’ position as the market-leading innovator in digital music distribution and marketing services, redefining the tools available to labels and artists to identify and reach new global streaming audiences. 

In keeping with Ingrooves' longstanding commitment to data privacy, the methods rely on aggregate reporting data that contain no personally identifying information, ensuring full compliance with GDPR and CCPA requirements.

The following are the series of patents awarded to Ingrooves Music Group over the past two years:

  • Artificial Intelligence Automation of Marketing Campaigns

Patent No. 10,755,291 issued on August 25, 2020

  • Artificial Intelligence Identification of High-Value Audiences for Marketing Campaigns

Patent No. 11,113,707 issued on September 7, 2021

  • Artificial Intelligence Prediction of High-Value Social Media Audience Behavior for Marketing Campaigns

Patent No. 11,494,811 (Issued August 30, 2022, PDF scheduled for release by

the USPTO on November 8, 2022)