An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Identifying music usage: AI enables us to identify where music is being used across multiple platforms, which is critical in the modern music economy where every use of music potentially requires an artist, songwriter or composer to be paid. It allows us to perform audio recognition and scanning of millions of audio files to differentiate between songs and sound effects. Music is ubiquitous — whether in a barbershop, on TV or in a viral video — and tracking its use at scale would be impossible without AI.
In today’s tech-driven world, artificial intelligence has become a key enabler of business success. But the question remains — how can businesses effectively harness AI to address their unique challenges while staying true to ethical principles? To explore this topic further, we are interviewing Rob Wells, CEO at Orfium.
Rob Wells is the CEO of Orfium, the global technology company solving the entertainment industry’s biggest challenges around music rights management in digital and broadcast media. He is an award-winning executive in the music industry with over 30 years of experience at early-stage tech ventures and major record labels, including BMG and Universal Music Group (UMG). During his 15 years at UMG, Rob was responsible for building its digital business from infancy into a global leader, by signing major streaming deals with Spotify and Apple.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path in AI?
I’ve been working in the music industry for the past 30 years, with much of that time focused on music and tech. I was Head of Digital at BMG and later, at Universal Music Group (UMG), I was responsible for building their digital business from its infancy, starting as Divisional Director of New Media and Digital Services in the UK and then climbing the ranks to Senior Vice President of Digital: International and ultimately President of Global Digital.
At UMG, one of my responsibilities was to oversee the relationship with YouTube, which gave me a front row seat to the emerging challenge of monetizing music in the digital age.
As CD and vinyl sales declined and piracy took hold, we helped pivot the industry to legal digital models — first with downloads, then with streaming and early partnerships with platforms like Spotify and YouTube. But while access to music exploded, one challenge remained: how do we make sure that artists and songwriters get paid when their work is used across such a wide variety of platforms, from user-generated content to film, TV, podcasts and video games?
That’s what we are now solving at Orfium, and the only solution that you can put forward for that is AI.
Having been involved in the music industry’s first digital revolution which completely transformed how people consume music, at Orfium, I’m now involved at the cutting edge of the next transformation. This time I’m on the other hidden side of the industry — where music rights are managed and usage is reported so that artists and songwriters can get paid for their work. We’re building and leveraging the latest AI tools and technology to do this.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started working with artificial intelligence?
When we expanded our business to Japan in 2022 through the acquisition of Breaker, one of the first YouTube-centric companies in the region, by the end of the year, we had signed our first set of deals. The aim was to find Japanese music on YouTube to remunerate its creators. To support Japanese clients, our software had to understand Japanese, a completely new language for us. Using AI technology, we set up a process that cross-referenced the English version of a piece of content in English with its version in Japanese, allowing the system to teach itself Japanese in record time. The process was predicted to take about three weeks but, with our AI technology, it took only 48 hours.
The speed at which we could teach our system a completely new language using AI blew my mind and it was probably the first time I realized just how powerful this technology is. To this day I still think that it’s borderline magic.
You are a successful leader in the AI space. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
I would say experience, adaptability and trust.
This is sophisticated technology, and it needs to be in the safe hands of business leaders to execute it properly. So, I’d say the first thing is that people shouldn’t underestimate the need for experience and adaptability. Things can go wrong, even in the AI world, and sometimes you need to pivot, to be able to change strategy.
When I started at BMG, I was in the company’s mailroom, sorting CD-insert postcards and preparing new-release mailings. I improved our operations by using new technology, transitioning the company’s marketing department from physical postcards to digital communications via email. I then had the chance to use this experience and adapt it to what would later be the digital business at BMG and UMG. There are a set of transferrable skills that we can always adapt to new business environments.
The other important element is trust. You have to trust the people who are experts. I know good technology when I see it work, but I still rely on the AI experts, specialist engineers and data scientists to build the technology. You’ve got to let them do their thing. So, trust is critical as well, in my experience.
Let’s jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you share a specific example of how you or your organization used AI to solve a major business challenge? What was the problem, and how did AI help address it?
With the music industry poised to grow from $98.3 billion in 2023 to $163.7 billion by 2030 (Goldman Sachs) and with the proliferation of new channels and streaming platforms, efficient monetization is one of the biggest challenges for the music business today to ensure that musicians, composers, songwriters and other music rightsholders get paid each time their work is used across user-generated content (UGC) platforms such as YouTube, Instagram or TikTok, and on broadcast media including TV, film and video streaming services such as Disney+.
We have new distribution methods and ways of consuming music. This rapid evolution of music consumption has made it difficult for the technologies available to track and monetize music to keep up.
At Orfium, we are making these systems more efficient for the benefit of music creators. Most of what we do as an organization is tidy up and fix that legacy problem. We have been using AI to supercharge the music copyright claiming process, so that artists and other rightsholders are compensated when their music is used. We analyze online and broadcast content, identify music usage, match it with our database, accurately report it and claim any royalties due on behalf of our clients.
What are some of the common misconceptions you’ve encountered about using AI in business? How do you address those misconceptions?
There is a misconception that all AI is a threat.
In the music industry, the debate has focused on the potential risks of generative AI and how it could harm artists. These concerns are completely valid and cannot be ignored, but they have at times overshadowed the benefits that other applications of AI technology can bring to the music industry and how critical it is to the long-term success of the music business.
At Orfium we focus on using AI for good. AI is the key to providing the infrastructure for artists, songwriters and rights owners to get paid in the modern entertainment industry — this is where we see AI’s biggest potential.
Another common misconception is the thought that AI will replace all human jobs. At Orfium we have shown that AI implementation is stronger and more effective when it is paired with human expertise. We have an in-house team that works hand in hand with our AI technology to identify copyright infringements more efficiently.
This human element is fundamental, as our in-house team also provides valuable feedback and annotations about the AI systems that eventually help improve our AI models.
Finally, most people think that AI is always fast. If you are building something and you have to train it, it takes time. This isn’t something you just spin up. It’s not like traditional technology where you run a command and it does a job. AI needs to be trained and tested to become more efficient and effective over time.
In your opinion, what is the most significant way AI can make a positive impact on businesses today?
AI can help most businesses with the automation of tasks, improving accuracy of results or handling large volumes of data. This is certain for the music business as well. In our specific case — and it can be extrapolated to similar creative industries — AI can find revenue for our clients every time it detects that a song has been used in a YouTube video or in social media. Once a song has been detected and matched with our catalog, using AI, we can submit copyright claims to ensure that creators and rights holders are compensated for the use of their songs.
Based on your experience and research, can you please share “5 Ways AI Can Solve Complex Business Problems”? These can be strategies, insights, or tools that companies can use to make the most of AI in addressing their challenges.
AI can address so many complex challenges that it’s hard to pick five, but based on my experience, these are some of the most powerful ways I’ve seen it solve problems today:
- Identifying music usage: AI enables us to identify where music is being used across multiple platforms, which is critical in the modern music economy where every use of music potentially requires an artist, songwriter or composer to be paid. It allows us to perform audio recognition and scanning of millions of audio files to differentiate between songs and sound effects. Music is ubiquitous — whether in a barbershop, on TV or in a viral video — and tracking its use at scale would be impossible without AI.
- Music recognition and attribution: Once we know music is being used, the next challenge is recognizing what music is being used. AI-powered music recognition is at the core of Orfium’s technology, allowing us to accurately identify tracks and ensure rights holders are paid correctly. This means we are even able to detect manipulated audio (sped up, slowed down, altered) and still attribute it and make sure the right people get paid.
- Cost efficiency: I spent five years on the board of the Surfrider Foundation, which campaigns on a number of issues but especially around clean oceans, and I saw how AI can dramatically reduce operational costs for nonprofits, especially in areas like fundraising and donor management. AI can automate workflows that previously required significant human resources, freeing up budgets for mission-critical work. This can be crucial for a lot of philanthropic work in the future.
- Scalability across borders: AI enables scalability not only in processing large datasets but also in overcoming international barriers. With AI-driven linguistic tools, businesses can communicate across languages and borders more effectively — critical in today’s global entertainment landscape.
- Detecting bad data: AI excels at detecting anomalies and cleaning corrupted data, which is invaluable in music rights management. At Orfium, AI helps us sift through vast amounts of data to ensure integrity and accuracy, unlocking revenue that might otherwise be lost.
How can smaller businesses or startups, with limited budgets, begin to integrate AI into their operations effectively?
It’s important for each company to assess the level of AI integration they need. AI technologies are becoming more accessible each day, and many small businesses already benefit from them without realizing it through tools integrated into their everyday platforms, like Google Workspace, Microsoft Office or even virtual assistants.
For companies not building AI solutions themselves, I recommend using well-tested, off-the-shelf AI tools to improve efficiency in areas like customer service, scheduling, client outreach and internal operations. AI can automate manual tasks and handle basic communications without requiring a dedicated data science team.
For businesses like Orfium, which are focused on building AI solutions, investment in research and innovation is essential. Our Data Science and Research & Innovation teams make up a significant portion of our workforce. These teams are key to serving our clients and maintaining our place at the cutting edge of the music industry.
What advice would you give to business leaders who are hesitant to adopt AI because of fear, misconceptions, or lack of understanding?
With any transformative technology, scepticism is natural — and sometimes healthy. It was inevitable that a technology as powerful as AI would generate fear and resistance, and many concerns are completely valid. There is no doubt that AI is here to stay, global dynamics are shifting to ensure access to raw materials that are mined, refined and used in faster and faster chip sets. The pace of change will accelerate so the solution is not to avoid it, but to embrace it in the right way as a tool that, if applied ethically, could bring enormous benefits for businesses and our society as a whole. For leaders hesitant to use AI in their day-to-day entrepreneurial activities, my best advice would be to start small.
Using AI in areas like drafting basic emails, scheduling meetings or automating repetitive admin tasks can free up your most valuable resource: time. Starting small makes AI’s impact tangible without overwhelming your organization.
In your opinion, how will AI continue to shape the business world over the next 5–10 years? Are there any trends or emerging innovations you’re particularly excited about?
AI is radically transforming many areas, and it will continue to do so in the coming years at an even faster pace. In the music industry, AI is already transforming how labels and publishers manage their rights, and will continue to reshape the global entertainment ecosystem. As the music market has become more and more streaming-oriented, tracking where your music has been used and claiming revenue has become an increasingly complex process. With the sheer volume of data that needs to be processed, AI provides the only scalable solution to this challenge.
In the music industry and beyond, AI will accelerate the breakdown of international barriers and will help businesses negotiate the globalized economy. Historically, music royalty collection has been fragmented across different countries and regions, raising challenges when music is used across global platforms. Video streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ are producing more content than ever, in numerous different territories and languages, with music being integral to all of these productions. In this context, AI can help to remove a lot of these boundaries, making legal, linguistic and cultural barriers much easier to deal with. This will enable artists and songwriters around the world to be compensated more fairly and efficiently than ever before.
How do you think the use of AI to solve business problems influences relationships with customers, employees, and the broader community?
AI has a huge impact on the relationships we build with all our stakeholders. By using AI, we can be faster and more productive, which allows us to increase the number of customers we can serve. It also improves the accuracy and quality of our work and frees our teams up from repetitive tasks, enabling them to focus on strategic, creative and high-impact work. This efficiency, of course, ultimately impacts the creative community as they receive revenue that they wouldn’t be getting if it wasn’t for the solutions provided by Orfium.
It’s important to know, though, that there is no substitute for personal relationships. In the music industry — where deals are built on trust, friendship and personal networks — AI can scale operations, but personal connections remain irreplaceable. No matter how advanced our tools, success will always hinge on these human relationships.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people through AI, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I could start a movement through AI, it would aim to educate people on the true value of music. I’ve often imagined a “music erasure engine”, a theoretical tool where, by typing someone’s name, music would disappear from their life. Imagine walking into a cinema, a hair salon or a concert, and hearing nothing in the way of music.
This absence would hammer home the power of music’s presence in our lives, and its impact on our emotions, culture and memories. Too often, music is taken for granted, and debates around copyright overlook its essential role. My imaginary machine would remind the world: music isn’t just background noise — it’s a fundamental, irreplaceable part of the human experience. I’m a strong believer that the more people truly appreciate that, the better our world would be.
How can our readers further follow you online?
You can connect with me on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robwells70/
This was great. Thank you so much for the time you spent sharing with us.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience as a Founder and CEO. While attending Ohio State University, he launched his first company, Choice Recovery, Inc., a nationally recognized healthcare collection agency — twice ranked the #1 workplace in Ohio. In 2013, he founded [re]start, helping thousands of people find meaningful career opportunities. After selling both companies, Chad shifted his focus to his true passion — leadership. Today, he coaches founders and CEOs at Built to Lead, advises Authority Magazine’s Thought Leader Incubator.
Rob Wells Of Orfium On How Artificial Intelligence Can Solve Business Problems was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.