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Japanese lyric-animating startup Cotodama joins Abbey Road Red


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UK-based music/tech incubator Abbey Road Red has announced the latest startup to join its program: Japanese firm Cotodama. The company will spend the next six months working with the incubator at Abbey Road Studios in London to refine its technology and business model.

Which is? Cotodama has developed software that can create visuals based on a song’s lyrics: “a proprietary Expression Engine algorithm which uses song structure and mood data to determine how to animate the lyrics for each song played and which Cotodama-designed animation template to use” as Abbey Road put it in its announcement yesterday.

“The lyrics are then animated using lyric timing information down to each individual letter exclusively supplied to Cotodama by metadata provider Sync Power Corporation. This all takes place in real-time while the listener is choosing and listening to songs.”

While part of Abbey Road Red, Cotodama will be creating YouTube lyric videos with artists from Universal Music Group. The company is also preparing to launch a physical speaker, the Lyric Speaker Canvas, which displays lyrics on its screen as they are played through its speaker.


Written by: Stuart Dredge