AudioShake has announced that it is launching its Copyright Compliance System, an end-to-end workflow for detecting, identifying, removing, and documenting copyrighted music in mixed media files.
The Copyright Compliance System is already in use across broadcast, sports, post-production, and rights administration, with early customers including ESPN, NFL Films, Jaywalker Music, CrunchLabs, Music Reports, and amp.
The platform aims to bring together many manual processes into one automated system and is designed to address the fact that the studios, broadcasters, sports teams, and distributors are sitting on enormous catalogs that they can't use because licensed music is baked into the original mix.
That has made copyright compliance a meaningful bottleneck in the monetization of content on FAST channels and streaming distribution.
The AudioShake modular system allows customers to use the full pipeline or adopt individual components (detection, identification, removal) inside their existing workflow. Extending upon AudioShake’s Music Removal model, AudioShake’s Copyright Compliance System combines:
- Music detection flags whether music is present in a piece of content, including noisy, fully-mixed audio where music is buried under dialogue, crowd noise, and effects. This helps downstream cue sheet teams know where music is present and where to fill out the relevant information.
- Music identification isolates the music in any media file and identifies the artist, song title, album, label, release date, and ISRC for each segment. Teams can quickly QC the identified music, combine repeated segments, and correct start and end times to accelerate cue sheet creation and approval.
- Music removal removes music from a clip, while preserving dialogue, ambient sound, and effects. In scenarios such as social distribution, archival re-licensing, or platforms where rights would otherwise create friction, AudioShake opens the downstream path for rightsholders to license replacement tracks, swap in their own catalog, or recoup royalties on music that previously went unreported.
One early user, AudioShake reported, is ESPN, which manages a vast library of live, archival, and digital content.
Across that ecosystem, audio constraints such as copyrighted arena and walkout music, expired licenses on archival programming, dialogue entangled with crowd noise, have all historically limited what could be redistributed and how quickly.
ESPN uses AudioShake to remove or isolate copyrighted music from sports highlights, preserve authentic commentary and crowd energy, and accelerate turnaround of rights-cleared assets across television, streaming, digital, and social platforms. Similarly, NFL Films and the Calgary Flames use AudioShake for the same reasons: to clear sports clips and game footage for broadcast and social distribution, where music rights would otherwise create friction.
AudioShake also reported that its solution addresses problems of music licensing for digital properties like ESPN's cult-favorite “The Ocho”, that have restricted distribution.
In such cases AudioShake detects and isolates copyrighted music embedded in sports footage, removes it while preserving commentary and natural stadium sound, and prepares archival content for streaming and digital distribution. Content that was previously unusable becomes available across new platforms and new audiences, extending the lifespan and reach of ESPN's archive.
The same capability played into a recent ESPN production. For ESPN's 2026 Super Bowl ad, AudioShake isolated legendary quarterback Phil Simms' voice from the clip of his iconic post-game "I'm going to Disney World!" catchphrase. Because of ambient in-stadium music, licensing the full clip would have been cost-prohibitive for just a few seconds of a 60-second commercial. AudioShake removed the ambient music and extracted Simms' vocal, making the clip usable.
“As ESPN continues to expand the ways we reach and serve sports fans in an age of content abundance, it’s important to lean into groundbreaking technology solutions that can help us bring the right content to the fans that want it as quickly and efficiently as possible,” said Kevin Lopes, Vice President, Business Development & Innovation, ESPN. “Working with AudioShake to leverage their innovative audio separation lets us unlock more content for fans by accelerating and modernizing workflows and ensuring we can deliver more high-quality sports content to fans wherever they are.”
