Splice Acquires Spitfire Audio
Splice buys Spitfire Audio, maker of LABS and BBC Symphony Orchestra libraries.
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Splice buys Spitfire Audio in reported $50 million deal
Splice, the New York-based music production platform known for its royalty-free sample catalogue, confirmed on 28 April 2025 that it had acquired Spitfire Audio, the London-based maker of orchestral and cinematic virtual instruments. Neither company disclosed financial terms. The Financial Times reported the deal at approximately USD $50 million, citing a person familiar with the matter. Spitfire Audio continues to operate under its own name, brand, and product lineup. The deal is Splice's first entry into the virtual instrument plugin sector, which the company values at $640 million.
What Spitfire Audio is
Founded in 2007, Spitfire Audio records professional orchestral and studio musicians and packages those recordings as virtual instruments (software that plays back and processes large collections of recorded instrument sounds, called sample libraries) for composers and producers working in film, television, and game scoring. Its catalogue includes full symphonic orchestras, chamber strings, brass, woodwinds, pianos, and experimental instruments. Flagship products include the BBC Symphony Orchestra library, collaborations with composers Hans Zimmer and Ólafur Arnalds, sessions at Abbey Road Studios, and LABS, a free instrument plugin distributing curated sound packs at no cost. We have covered several Spitfire releases at musicmanta, including Albion Solstice, Originals Cinematic Pads, and the Beatles Piano plugin.
Splice was founded in 2013. By the time of the acquisition it reported more than $100 million in annual revenue, approximately 600,000 paying subscribers, a community of over 10 million creators, and around one million sounds downloaded per day. Goldman Sachs led a $55 million Series D funding round in 2021 that valued Splice at close to $500 million.
How the deal works
Both companies confirmed they will continue to operate independently. Olivier Robert-Murphy remains CEO of Spitfire Audio, reporting to Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava. Paul Thomson, Spitfire Audio co-founder, continues to oversee Spitfire's creative direction. Thomson and Srivastava met at Air Studios in London on the weekend before the announcement.
Srivastava said: "The teams at Spitfire Audio and Splice have deep respect for composers, musicians and producers and are committed to celebrating and supporting their work. We're both sound-first, creator-led companies who believe great software and technology can supercharge the creative experience. Our shared vision is to develop tools that expand, not replace, human creativity. With Spitfire's expressive instruments and Splice's AI-powered platform, we're just beginning to explore what's possible."
Paul Thomson said: "We've always focused on inspiring people to create extraordinary music. With Splice, we can now bring that inspiration to a whole new generation of artists, producers, and storytellers." In a separate video, Thomson confirmed: "We're still going to be providing perpetual licence products."
The AI context
Splice framed the acquisition around AI-powered music creation. The company describes its approach as an "ethical AI-powered discovery engine": generative tools that start from licensed Splice samples and route attribution and royalties back to the human creator. Srivastava said this ensures "artists are fairly compensated for their work." Thomson acknowledged community concern: "There's a lot of fear, understandably, around AI in the music creation community. As musicians and composers, we've always used technology. It's just a tool to help you be more creative."
Splice cited a Midia Research forecast that the music creation tools market will nearly double to $14 billion by 2031, and positioned the Spitfire acquisition as a bet on owning both the discovery layer (Splice's catalogue and AI) and the instrument layer (Spitfire's orchestral and cinematic sounds). Around 40% of Splice's users were actively using its AI tools at the time of the deal.
What came next: Splice INSTRUMENT and LABS
The first visible product from the acquisition arrived later in 2025. Splice launched Splice INSTRUMENT, a free VST3, AU, and AAX plugin built by the Spitfire LABS team that replaces the standalone LABS plugin as the home for the same free preset library. INSTRUMENT auto-detects existing LABS installations so existing users do not need to re-download anything. A premium catalogue is available via Splice subscription or a dedicated INSTRUMENT subscription at $12.99/month. The Splice Ableton Live integration and Soundcheck AI beta followed, bringing Splice's sample browser inside Ableton Live 12.3 and adding four AI manipulation tools for Splice subscribers. Spitfire Audio's existing library sales and perpetual licences continued alongside these new products.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are my existing Spitfire Audio licences still valid?
Yes. Spitfire Audio confirmed that its product catalogue, customer support, and all existing licences remain fully operational. Nothing about the acquisition changes access to products you have already purchased.
What happens to LABS?
The LABS free preset library has moved into Splice INSTRUMENT, a free plugin built by the same LABS team. Existing LABS installations are auto-detected so you do not need to re-download. The standalone LABS plugin is being retired in favour of INSTRUMENT.
Will Spitfire Audio continue making perpetual licence products?
Yes. Paul Thomson confirmed explicitly that perpetual licence products will continue. Spitfire's library catalogue and the Spitfire Audio app operate unchanged alongside the new Splice-branded products.
Who runs Spitfire Audio now?
Olivier Robert-Murphy remains CEO of Spitfire Audio, reporting to Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava. Paul Thomson continues to oversee creative direction at Spitfire Audio.
How much did Splice pay for Spitfire Audio?
The companies did not disclose financial terms. The Financial Times reported the deal at approximately $50 million, citing a person familiar with the matter.
What is the connection to the Splice INSTRUMENT plugin?
Splice INSTRUMENT is the first product that directly merges the two companies' catalogues. It is a free plugin built by the Spitfire LABS team, available at splice.com/instrument, and it carries both Spitfire LABS presets and the broader Splice sample library in a single interface. The premium catalogue requires a Splice subscription or a standalone INSTRUMENT subscription at $12.99/month.
Our View
Splice and Spitfire Audio serve almost completely different customers. Splice's subscribers are bedroom producers and beat makers working in electronic, hip-hop, and pop, downloading loops and one-shots on a monthly plan. Spitfire Audio's buyers are film and television composers, game audio leads, and orchestrally trained producers who spend hundreds of pounds on perpetual libraries they plan to use for a decade. The overlap is small. What Splice has bought is not a complementary catalogue but a different market segment, a different product model, and a different price bracket. Whether that combination creates more value than both companies would have built separately is not clear from the deal announcement alone.
The perpetual licence commitment is the thing to watch. Thomson's statement at Air Studios is explicit, and the Splice INSTRUMENT launch handled the LABS migration cleanly: existing LABS users got a straightforward upgrade path and free access was preserved. The harder test will come when Spitfire's high-end libraries, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Hans Zimmer and Ólafur Arnalds collaborations, the Abbey Road series, face commercial pressure from Splice's subscription model. Competing orchestral library platforms including EastWest already operate on subscription-only terms with their Composer Cloud platform. If Spitfire's perpetual products remain perpetual, the acquisition is structurally positive for buyers who value ownership over rental. If they shift to subscription or rent-to-own, Thomson's Air Studios statement will have proven to be the kind of commitment that dissolves under a new corporate parent.
For existing Spitfire Audio customers: no action needed. For Splice subscribers curious about orchestral sounds: Splice INSTRUMENT is free to install and is the right starting point. For anyone weighing a large Spitfire library purchase: the perpetual licence model is intact as of May 2026 and the commitment from Thomson is on the record. Buy what you need now; the acquisition is neither a reason to rush nor a reason to hold back.
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