Orfium

Orfium is a music rights management technology company founded in 2015 in Los Angeles by Drew Delis and Chris Mohoney. The company uses AI-powered tools to identify, match, and claim music usage across digital platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Disney+, and BBC iPlayer. With a global team of over 700 across eight offices, Orfium is on track to recover $1 billion in total royalties for its clients.

How Orfium Works

Orfium is not a traditional sync licensing library or marketplace. It is a B2B technology company that helps rights holders (record labels, music publishers, production music companies, broadcasters, and collecting societies) manage, track, and monetize their music across digital and broadcast platforms.

The core process works in three stages:

1. Identification: Orfium's AI platform scans digital platforms (YouTube, TikTok, social media, streaming services) to find uses of its clients' music. The system processed over three quadrillion rows of data in 2024 alone.
2. Matching: The platform matches identified usage to the correct compositions and recordings in its clients' catalogs, resolving metadata gaps that cause unpaid royalties.
3. Claiming: A dedicated team of expert claimers uses AI insights to place claims on behalf of rights holders. This "human-in-the-loop" approach ensures accuracy and prevents false claims.

In 2023, Orfium acquired London-based Soundmouse, a company specializing in music cue sheet reporting and audio recognition for broadcasters. Soundmouse was founded in 2000 by Kirk Zavieh and Charles Hodgkinson and brought nearly 400 staff and offices in London, Bulgaria, Seoul, Sri Lanka, Taipei, and Tokyo. The acquisition combined Orfium's digital platform expertise with Soundmouse's broadcast reporting infrastructure.

Orfium is led by CEO Rob Wells, who joined the company in 2017. The company has offices in Malibu, Athens, London, Tokyo, and additional Soundmouse locations.

Real-World Example

A mid-size music publisher with 50,000 compositions discovers that approximately 30% of YouTube uses of their catalog go unclaimed due to metadata mismatches. They partner with Orfium to identify and claim this missing usage. Over 12 months, Orfium's AI platform identifies 120,000 previously unclaimed videos using the publisher's music. The claiming team places claims on 95,000 valid uses. At an average of $0.003 to $0.005 per stream in YouTube revenue, those claims generate $285,000 to $475,000 in recovered royalties. Orfium takes a percentage of recovered revenue as its fee, meaning the publisher pays nothing upfront and only shares in revenue that would otherwise have been lost entirely.

Why It Matters for Independent Artists

Orfium does not work directly with individual artists. It works with the organizations that represent artists: publishers, labels, PROs, and collecting societies. However, understanding what Orfium does matters for independent artists for several reasons:

• Unclaimed royalties are real: If your music is on YouTube or TikTok and your publisher or label is not using a service like Orfium, a significant portion of your royalties may go uncollected. Ask your publisher or distributor what rights management tools they use.
• Metadata is everything: Orfium's entire business exists because metadata is often incomplete or incorrect. Ensure your ISRC codes, ISWC codes, and split sheets are accurate and registered with your PRO before releasing music.
• AI and copyright are converging: In 2025, Orfium was awarded a EUR 7.5 million grant from the European Commission to lead the AIXPERT project, a three-year research initiative focused on detecting copyrighted music within AI-generated outputs. This technology could determine how AI-generated music is attributed and compensated in the future.
• Global coverage matters: Orfium's partnerships with PRS for Music (Africa), Pony Canyon and Warner Music Japan (Japan), and BROMIS (South Korea) show that rights management requires territorial coverage. If your publisher only monitors one region, you are losing money elsewhere.

Read our guide to music licensing agreements to understand what rights you are delegating to publishers and labels who may use services like Orfium on your behalf.

Platform Features

• AI-powered identification: Scans YouTube, TikTok, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, and other platforms for music usage
• Soundmouse broadcast reporting: Gold-standard cue sheet management and audio recognition for broadcasters
• Human-in-the-loop claiming: AI identifies opportunities, expert claimers execute claims for accuracy
• AIXPERT project: Leading EU-funded research on AI music copyright attribution (EUR 7.5M grant, 2025 to 2028)
• Global presence: 700+ staff across 8 offices in Malibu, Athens, London, Tokyo, Bulgaria, Seoul, Sri Lanka, and Taipei
• $1B recovery target: On track to deliver $1 billion in total recovered royalties for clients
• Partnership network: PRS for Music, Pony Canyon, Avex, Bandai Namco, Warner Music Japan, JASRAC, BROMIS

Related Resources

• Sync Licensing Companies Directory - Browse more sync licensing companies
• PRO Directory - Find your performing rights organization
• Streaming Royalty Calculator - Calculate streaming revenue
• Sync License Glossary Term - Learn what a sync license covers
• Visit Orfium for enterprise rights management solutions