Fairly Trained - Endel [PART 3] Ethics of genAI for music

Looking for an ethical tool that uses generative AI for creating music? Check out this profile of Endel, a genAI music company that's certified as Fairly Trained.

May 23, 2024

This article provides a deep dive on Endel, one of the companies working on generative AI for music who have been certified as Fairly Trained. It supports the upcoming PART 3 in our 8-part series “Unfair Use? Ethics of generative AI for music”, announced in this INTRODUCTION post on

6 'P's in AI Pods

This article series is not a substitute for legal advice and is meant for general information only.

Acronyms

DAW - digital audio workstation
TTA - text to audio (more general than music; can include spoken vocals as well as sung vocals & instruments)

Business and feature information is summarized from the company’s websites; LinkedIn; Crunchbase; PitchBook, where available; and publicly available reviews of one or more of these tools. Links are in the References section.

Endel

Descriptions:

On Fairly Trained: “Endel is an AI sound wellness company specializing in creating functional soundscapes to help people focus, relax, and sleep.”
On LinkedIn: “Focus, relax, and sleep through the power of sound.”
On website: “Personalized soundscapes to help you focus, relax, and sleep. Backed by neuroscience.”
On PitchBook: “Developer of a personalized soundscape platform designed to generate adaptive sound environments. The company's platform uses a core algorithm based on circadian rhythms, pentatonic scales, and sound masking while adapting different inputs like time, weather, heart rate, and location enabling customers to boost their productivity and cognitive abilities by staying focused and relaxed.”

History & Partnerships

Endel was founded in Jan. 2018 and headquartered in Berlin, Germany.1 They are estimated by PitchBook to have ~117 employees. Some highlights:

2018: Amazon’s Alexa Fund was one of Endel’s first investors.
March 2019: Established a distribution deal with Warner Music Group.2
July 2021: Amazon and Endel announce a partnership to support Alexa devices (ref: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/creating-a-new-world-of-personalized-music-through-ai)
April 2022: Acquired by Warner Music Group on April 5. 3
Feb. 2023: Amazon Music announced adding an 8-hour Endel Sleep Science playlist. 4 5
May 2023: Established a partnership with Universal Music Group to collaborate with artists on creating ‘soundscapes’.6

Endel’s site lists partnerships with other companies, including Mercedes Benz, Sony (LinkBuds), and Smartwater (Smartbeats). In addition to Apple, Amazon, and UMG, their streaming page also lists partnerships with Platoon and Republic Records.

Endel’s offerings are available via desktop (PC, Mac, or web) or via mobile apps for iOS and Android, as well as Apple TV and Apple Vision Pro. Endel supports Amazon’s Echo devices, Fire Tablets, Fire TV, Alexa Auto, and the Alexa App.

As of May 20, 2024, Endel’s home page claims over 4 million downloads of their “award-winning app for iOS and Android”. Endel’s iOS app won Apple Watch App of the Year for 2020, and the Android app won Google Play Best of 2021 Award. They envision a huge market, citing that “80% of Gen Z listen to music to regulate mood” and that “Functional music generates billions of streams every month and has extremely high listener retention”.

Key Features

Endel’s focus is “functional music” or “sound wellness” based on neuroscience. They create “real-time personal soundscapes” for individual users which leverage input from their wearable sensors, such as heart rate from a smart watch, and ambient conditions such as time of day, weather, and location. Un-personalized soundscapes are also available via streaming services (e.g. Amazon Music).

Their site Science page points to benefits for improved sleep as well as better management of ADD/ADHD.

Of most interest for our purposes is their offer to “Partner with Endel to create unique releases that help listeners focus, relax and sleep.” They invite Labels to “create unique functional releases from existing music” for sleep, relaxation, or focus, and list examples of “successful albums that transformed artist material into a unique functional release”. Endel invites users to “turn any track into functional music” by providing the audio stems. 7

Training Data & Technology

Endel’s Pacific® engine drives their apps and integrations. It generates an optimal personalized soundscape for the user’s desired purpose (focus, relaxation, or sleep) on-device in real-time, based on inputs from devices or sensors which provide context. 8

Endel’s home page says “Our patented technology creates soundscapes that adapt in real-time. It reacts to inputs like time of day, weather, heart rate, and location. Neuroscience shows Endel consistently improves focus and lowers stress.” Details are available in a published paper. 9

Ownership, Usage Rights, & Pricing

An individual’s Endel collections can be used on “an unlimited number of devices”. However, users do not own or download their personalized soundscapes. They are generated on the fly or available through streaming services. Endel offers 3 types of paid plans:

Gifts: A year of Endel Premium costs $89.99. Lifetime access is $249.99.
Students: $29.99 for 12 months, for people studying at a school, college, or university
Teams: Endel offers a 20% discount on Premium for teams of 10-200 people. Custom pricing is available for teams > 200 people.

Endel does not have a free plan. The T&Cs mention a 7-day free trial for which the cost will be “reduced” if you sign up for a 12-month plan before the trial ends. 10 Potential users should note that the T&Cs promise only 90.00% availability of their services. [90% seems low for a service intended to be used at varying times of day or night worldwide for sleep, focused work, relaxing, etc.]

It is not clear whether musicians who “partner with Endel” to convert their music into soundscapes have full ownership of their creations, or if they are able to download and distribute their soundscapes outside of Endel (or the Amazon Music partnership) as copyrighted works.

❓If you’re curious about the ethical posture of the big, well-known firms or smaller players who are not yet certified as Fairly Trained, subscribe (for FREE) to be notified of our upcoming posts (the parent PART 3 article, a post on major un-certified companies, a post on other un-certified companies) and the remainder of the series:

REFERENCES and ENDNOTES

Links to upcoming
6 'P's in AI Pods
articles

(coming soon)

Analysis page on 9 genAI music companies who are already certified as Fairly Trained (including this one)
PART 3 - top-level article on Who, What, & When in ethics of genAI for music