Regardless of genre or style, music is a universal human creation found around the world. Whether it's classical, jazz fusion, trap, contemporary pop, folk or one of the other dozens of genres and sub-genres that have evolved alongside people, music has been a constant in human culture for as long as we've walked this planet.
Though music has shaped human existence for centuries, the way we create and listen to music has evolved as much as the music itself. With just over a century of recorded music behind us, we've just scratched the surface of technology's influence in how we create and enjoy music. A variety of music companies in San Francisco are to thank for pioneering some of the most recent developments in listening content, from reinventing digital radio to bringing natural language processing to streaming services. Learn more about the companies in San Francisco and the Bay Area utilizing technology to unite people and music.
Top Music Companies in San Francisco
- Eventbrite
- Smule
- TuneIn
- 7digital
- Bandcamp
- Gracenote
- Pandora
Founded: 2006
Focus: Ticketing
Location: San Francisco
What they do: If you regularly attend live events, concerts or sporting events of any size, chances are you’ve purchased a ticket on Eventbrite. The ticketing platform makes it easy for event organizers to sell and distribute tickets to unique activities, offering several customizable features. Of these features includes a potential earnings tool that multiplies ticket prices by an estimated number of tickets sold, combining additional factors to ensure events are priced properly for both organizers and customers.
Founded: 2008
Focus: Social media
Location: San Francisco
What they do: Smule is like having your own personal vocal partner right in your pocket. The company created a platform that allows music lovers to fully immerse themselves within the songs they love, featuring a library of music where users can sing duets with either the original artist or other users. Singers can simultaneously record their screens and share the video on Smule to compete with others for the top of the charts.
Founded: 2002
Focus: Digital radio
Location: San Francisco
What they do: Featuring podcast series, music, news and sports broadcasts from throughout the world, TuneIn makes it easy to listen to and discover top audio content without barriers. TuneIn compiles popular music into a lengthy selection of radio stations based on genre and additional factors. With access to existing local, national and international radio stations as well, TuneIn users have the ability to choose from over 100,000 stations at any time.
Founded: 2004
Focus: Music business
Location: San Francisco
What they do: 7digital is a provider of B2B digital music solutions for use in a variety of cases, offering access to many of the largest channels for developing, discovering and integrating digital music into company content. Their lengthy service offerings include radio production, licensing, brand campaigns and music streaming capabilities, along with access to APIs and developer tools for integrating 7digital’s catalogue to enrich projects with captivating music.
Founded: 2008
Focus: Digital Radio
Location: Mountain View
What they do: Aha Radio provides access to all of the best audio content from throughout the web and makes it easier to listen to while driving and commuting. The Aha Radio app syncs seamlessly to dashboards of several different vehicle makes and allows the vehicle’s built-in controls to use Aha’s digital music stations, podcasts and news streams. Aha also provides the ability to read tweets and social media content back to the user while they stay focused on the road.
Founded: 2008
Focus: Local music
Location: San Francisco
What they do: Bandcamp is a hub where musicians, fans and labels can come together to share the music that means most to them. Artists can post original music to the site with total control over pricing and rights. Music labels make use of Bandcamp to reach out to emerging artists, create flexible payment methods and handle accounting, simplify fulfillments and more.
Founded: 1996
Focus: Big Data
Location: Emeryville
What they do: Gracenote is a Nielsen company that brings powerful insights to the companies who distribute and curate entertainment content worldwide, complete with a global database of detailed TV, sports, movie and music information living on a highly scalable platform. Making entertainment more accessible to fans is at the core of Gracenote’s mission, with additional services available like media recognition and smart radio solutions for the auto industry.
Founded: 2008
Focus: Advertising
Location: San Mateo
What they do: Jelli provides an advertising solution that allows brands and agencies to tap into the $45 billion global audio industry, as well as an intuitive way for publishers to monetize content. The company’s RadioSpot platform is in use by nearly 2500 radio stations, while SpotPlan, Jelli’s programmatic DSP platform, is used by leading agencies to reach hundreds of millions of listeners worldwide.
Founded: 2000
Focus: Digital radio
Location: Oakland
What they do: Pandora is amongst the largest and most intuitive digital radio providers, creating individualized stations for users that are centered around a single artist, genre, song or additional listener preferences. Stations are then algorithmically curated and filled with similar songs and artists to provide a constant stream of listening that is focused on keeping the user engaged with their jams.
Founded: 2005
Focus: Streaming
Location: Santa Clara
What they do: SoundHound has developed a line of products that provide voice recognition functions to interact with both a digital personal assistant and the songs they love. The Soundhound platform utilizes natural language processing to respond to commands and detect music playing around it with unprecedented speed, plus SoundHound is compatible with Spotify and Apple Music so users can stream any song at any given time.
