Songtradr expands Asia-Pacific presence with Song Zu acquisition

Songtradr has expanded its local presence by acquiring music and sound design company Song Zu, strengthening its position as one of the world’s leading music licensing businesses.

The highly decorated company is headquartered in Sydney and Singapore, and has post-production studios in both locations.

“Song Zu is the region’s leading custom music composition house and has such a rich history,” Paul Wiltshire said, the Los Angeles-based CEO of Songtradr.

“As we continue to expand into the APAC region, Song Zu is a natural fit and greatly complements our global music ecosystem.”

Song Zu will continue working with its slate of clients as usual, while enhancing its services with Songtradr’s technology and product offering.

Content creation continues to rapidly expand with brands requiring more music than ever. Equally, the creation and supply of new music are booming and Songtradr’s technologies connect these two marketplaces.

Song Zu will form part of Songtradr’s recently launched platform Vinyl by Songtradr, alongside acquired companies, Big Sync Music and Cuesongs.

Vinyl By Songtradr is a tech-enhanced, human-curated platform that gives users direct access to creative talent, commercial music licensing, as well as pre-cleared music, sonic branding, custom composition and more.

“We are thrilled to be joining the Songtradr family, expanding our product offering and increasing our global footprint. From our very first conversation with the Songtradr team, it just felt like the right fit for us and our clients,” Ian Lew said, managing director and partner of Song Zu.

“Bespoke music will always be at the heart of what we do,” creative director Ramesh Sathiah added. “But having the resources of the Songtradr platform as well as the music licencing power of Big Sync, allows us to offer creative solutions with no boundaries.”

Song Zu has strong links with the Australian music industry. It was co-founded in the late ‘70s by Les Gock, guitarist with Sydney glam hitmakers Hush.

Gock and his wife Margaret Gock built it up from a small sound studio to a large enterprise until they departed the company in 2003 at which point the current management took over.

Its resident composers include guitarist Nathan Cavaleri, Ramesh Sathiah, Haydn Walker, Lance Gurisik, Ben Lam and, previously, the late James Freud of The Models.