Surf Music is one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in the small & mighty (1-50 employees) category.

Surf Music launched in May 2023 as a marketplace for creators to share unreleased tunes, giving artists a new way to generate revenue from their creativity and publishers and music managers another means of discovering talent.

Surf uses AI to enhance its offerings for creators, who can employ the technology to catalog and tag their work so that it can be found more easily. Music buyers in turn can use the AI filtering system to sift through available tracks. They also can place holds on anything that piques their interest. The platform, which currently operates on digital and mobile browsers (though an app is being developed), uses a subscription-based model that does not take any revenue or royalties from musicians.

With a focus in the U.S., Japan, and Korea, Surf has already attracted more than 700 artists and producers, who have published 7,500 unreleased demos to the platform. Approximately 30 works have garnered interest from key industry players, and six have become No. 1 charting singles and albums in Japan.