Pex
Pex builds Music Recognition Technology (audio fingerprinting, melody/phonetic matching, AI song detection) that identifies altered and AI-generated music across 20+ platforms for music labels, publishers, DSPs, collection societies, and brands. Acquired by Vobile in April 2025.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2014
- HeadquartersLos Angeles, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Pex does
Pex (legal entity Pexeso Inc, founded 2014) is a digital rights technology company specializing in Music Recognition Technology (MRT) for the music industry. The company builds audio fingerprinting, melody matching, phonetic matching, Voice ID, and content classification systems that identify music even when substantially altered (50-200% speed changes, ±12.5 semitone pitch shifts, transpositions, language changes, partial obscuring). Its core products include Pex Search for real-time music identification via SDK/API, Discovery for tracking audio/video across 20+ platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and SoundCloud, and the AI Song Detector which classifies tracks as AI- or human-generated and attributes generation to specific models (Suno, Udio, Boomy, ElevenLabs, Mureka, Sonauto, Google Lyria). The company also offers Market Share Reports for licensing negotiations and, following the 2025 brand expansion, Pex Search for Brands and Hashtag Tracking for social media compliance.
Pex operates a Vobile Music Registry of 120M+ indexed recordings and a Discovery database of 23B+ indexed content pieces. Customers and partners include Sony Music, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group (catalog registrations), SoundCloud (preferred vendor for AI music creation partners), and The MLC (sole music recognition technology for the Supplemental Matching Network). Pricing follows a three-tier structure: free catalog registration, $1/file/month Discovery subscription, and custom enterprise agreements, with usage-based API pricing for the AI Song Detector.
In April 2025, Pex was acquired by Vobile, a publicly traded digital content protection company headquartered in Santa Clara. The Pex team became the Vobile Music Team, and Pex solutions are now distributed through Vobile's global enterprise sales organization spanning North America, Asia, Australia, and Europe.
Pex firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Pex
- Legal name
- Pexeso Inc
- Website
- https://pex.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2014
- Operating status
- Acquired
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Pex builds Music Recognition Technology (audio fingerprinting, melody/phonetic matching, AI song detection) that identifies altered and AI-generated music across 20+ platforms for music labels, publishers, DSPs, collection societies, and brands. Acquired by Vobile in April 2025.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Pex industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Audio Content Recognition Software
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132), Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (51929)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Music Recognition, Lyrics & Metadata Platforms (MPAIADAK)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Recorded Music Metadata, Fingerprinting & Anti-Piracy (CID/Content ID) (MPAIAAAJ), AI Music Creation & Assistive Tools (Generation, Separation, Mastering) (MPAIAIAG)
Keywords
Where Pex is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Los Angeles
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Pex business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Pex Search (SaaS/SDK): Subscription-based access to Music Recognition Technology via Software Development Kit. Clients transform audio/video into digital fingerprints which are sent to Pex for identification. Pricing starts at $1 per file per month for Discovery.
- Discovery: Audio and video copyright search engine that finds uses of copyrighted content across platforms. Accessed via dashboard (drm.pex.com) or API for bulk additions. Real-time scanning and tracking across 20+ platforms.
- AI Song Detector API: Real-time API access for detecting AI-generated music. Available via OAuth 2.0 authentication with per-request processing.
- Market Share Reports: Custom data reports determining individual market share on platforms for licensing negotiations and royalty calculations.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Usage-based | Monthly | Discovery - Starting at $1/file/month |
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Free Registry - No cost catalog registration |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise - Custom pricing |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels5 records
Pex product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Pex provides Music Recognition Technology (MRT) via APIs and SDKs that identify audio content even when it has been modified (sped up, slowed down, or pitch-shifted) or generated by AI. Its product suite includes Pex Search for real-time music identification, AI Song Detector for classifying AI-generated music, Discovery for cross-platform content tracking, and Market Share Reports for licensing and royalty attribution. Customers include major music labels, publishers, DSPs, UGC platforms, brands, and collection societies.
Product overview
Pex (now part of Vobile) is a content identification technology company offering a modular platform of music recognition solutions. The core products include: Pex Search for real-time music identification via SDK/API with advanced ACR technology; AI Song Detector for identifying AI-generated music; Discovery for tracking content across 20+ UGC/social platforms; and Market Share Report for royalty attribution data. These products share common underlying technology foundations (audio fingerprinting, melody matching, phonetic matching, Voice ID) and target rightsholders, platforms, brands, and collection societies. The platform indexes over 120 million recordings in its Music Registry and processes content from platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and SoundCloud. In April 2025, Pex was acquired by Vobile, expanding enterprise content protection capabilities.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Pex Search Real-time music identification powered by AI-driven Automated Content Recognition (ACR). Identifies music even when modified at 50–200% speed/pitch changes, supports content classification (music/speech/silence), and enables cover song identification through melody and phonetic matching. Delivered via SDK/API with OAuth 2.0 authentication.
- AI Song Detector Real-time API that identifies whether a song was created by an AI music generator or a human artist. Classifies tracks as AI-generated or human-created and, when confidence is high, identifies which AI platform produced the song (Suno, Udio, Boomy, ElevenLabs, Mureka, Sonauto, Google Lyria). Available via API with OAuth 2.0 authentication.
- Discovery Audio and video copyright search engine that finds uses of copyrighted content across 20+ digital platforms (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, SoundCloud, Spotify, etc.). Accessed via self-serve dashboard (drm.pex.com) or API for bulk additions. Pricing starts at $1 per file per month.
- Market Share Report Determines individual market share on platforms or provides custom data. Helps rightsholders and production music libraries identify music usage on platforms for licensing negotiations and royalty allocation.
- Pex Search for Brands Music identification solution tailored for brand marketers. Identifies music in owned and influencer social media content before posts go live and audits already-published content, reducing copyright infringement liability and supporting commercial music licensing compliance.
Quantifiable outcome
- 19-21% of identified content on platforms is modified audio, representing millions in diverted royalties
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Pex
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments7 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
Pex technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration23 records
AI capability8 records
Feature6 records
Pex partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- VobilecoreVobile, a global leader in digital content protection, acquired Pex in April 2025. The acquisition combined Pex's music identification technologies with Vobile's enterprise-grade content protection and rights management, expanding services for the music industry.
- SoundCloudcoreSoundCloud named Pex a preferred vendor for its AI music creation partners. Pex's content identification solutions ensure rightsholders receive proper credit and compensation as SoundCloud democratizes music creation with AI tools.
- The MLC (Mechanical Licensing Collective)corePex was selected for The MLC's Supplemental Matching Network to help increase royalty match rates for unclaimed royalties. Pex was the only music recognition technology selected for this network.
- CosyndminorPex and RME (digital-first rights organization) joined forces with Cosynd to empower music creators with accurate copyright tracking and income protection.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Pex competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Audible Magic: Long-standing provider of audio content recognition and fingerprinting technology for music identification, rights management, and copyright compliance — directly competes with Pex Search across the same platform and label customer base.
- BMAT: Music identification and recommendation technology provider serving broadcasters, DSPs, and rightsholders with audio fingerprinting comparable to Pex's MRT, particularly for royalty matching and usage tracking.
- ACRCloud: Provides audio fingerprinting and content recognition APIs for music identification, broadcast monitoring, and copyright detection — overlapping directly with Pex Search's API/SDK offering and pricing model.
- Music Reports Inc. Provides music rights administration, licensing, and royalty processing services to platforms and rightsholders — overlaps with Pex in rights data and market share analytics for licensing negotiations.
- Shazam (Apple): Consumer-facing audio recognition application owned by Apple — uses similar audio fingerprinting technology to Pex Search, though oriented toward consumer discovery rather than enterprise rights management.
Broad incumbents
- YouTube Content ID (Google): Industry-standard content identification system owned by Google/Alphabet that processes rights management at unmatched scale across the YouTube ecosystem — the dominant incumbent Pex must compete against in music rights identification.
- Gracenote (Nielsen): Operates one of the largest music metadata and identification databases globally, serving DSPs and broadcasters with similar use cases to Pex Discovery — a broad incumbent rather than a niche specialist.
- Vobile: Parent company since April 2025 and provider of digital content protection and rights management primarily for video — now offers Pex's music technology as part of a broader enterprise content protection portfolio.
Emerging players
- SoundPatrol: Emerging music monitoring and rights enforcement provider focused on social platforms — addresses a similar problem to Pex Discovery for labels and publishers but with a narrower feature set and earlier-stage product maturity.
- Cyanite: AI-based music tagging, recommendation, and search provider for catalogs and sync — adjacent to Pex's melody and phonetic matching capabilities but applied primarily to catalog organization rather than copyright identification.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Pex social profiles
Digital presencePex financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Pex leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Pex funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors13 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Pex M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A1 record
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Pex
What does Pex do?
Pex provides Music Recognition Technology (MRT) via APIs and SDKs that identify audio content even when it has been modified (sped up, slowed down, or pitch-shifted) or generated by AI. Its product suite includes Pex Search for real-time music identification, AI Song Detector for classifying AI-generated music, Discovery for cross-platform content tracking, and Market Share Reports for licensing and royalty attribution. Customers include major music labels, publishers, DSPs, UGC platforms, brands, and collection societies.
Is Pex a public or private company?
Pex is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently acquired.
When was Pex founded?
Pex was founded in 2014. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Pex based?
Pex is headquartered in Los Angeles, United States, in the North America region.
How does Pex make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Pex Search (SaaS/SDK) is the primary driver. The others are discovery, AI Song Detector API and market Share Reports.
Who are Pex's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Audible Magic, BMAT, ACRCloud, Music Reports Inc. and Shazam (Apple). Broad incumbents are YouTube Content ID (Google), Gracenote (Nielsen) and Vobile. Emerging players are SoundPatrol and Cyanite.
Does Pex have an API?
Yes. Pex offers multiple APIs: (1) Pex Search API - enables real-time music identification via SDK; (2) Discovery API - for tracking audio/video across platforms; (3) AI Song Detector API - real-time detection of AI-generated music. Authentication uses OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials with 2-hour access tokens. Supports file upload (up to 100MB, 30 sec to 15 min duration) and URL-based detection. Returns JSON with is_ai classification, ai_score (0-1), and predicted_model attribution (Suno, Udio, Boomy, ElevenLabs, Mureka, Sonauto, Google Lyria). Developer documentation is at docs.pex.com.
What industry is Pex in?
Pex's product category is Audio Content Recognition Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPAIADAK, Music Recognition, Lyrics & Metadata Platforms, with a secondary code of MPAIAAAJ, Recorded Music Metadata, Fingerprinting & Anti-Piracy (CID/Content ID). Its NAICS code is 5132.