Inside Soundtrack’s Roll-Up Strategy: Building a Global Leader in Background Music with Ola Sars

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May 29, 2025

Ola Sars, the Founder and CEO of Soundtrack Technologies, shares his 20-year journey in disrupting the music industry, starting with co-founding Beats Music. He discusses his buyer-led M&A strategy to consolidate the background music market, transforming legacy customers into scalable revenue streams. Sars highlights lessons learned from major players like Apple and Spotify on scaling businesses and innovating within the digital music landscape. He also delves into effective seller engagement tactics and the balance needed in the unpredictable world of M&A.

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ANECDOTE

Ola's 20-Year Music Tech Journey

Ola Sars founded multiple music startups around the thesis that all music would be available anytime, anywhere.
This journey included building the world's first pocket-sized DJ system and later contributing to Beats Music and Spotify Business.

ANECDOTE

Chaotic Integration with Mog

The acquisition of the San Francisco streaming platform Mog was chaotic but crucial for launching Beats Music in the US.
Integration was a "complete shit show," yet the team pushed through to market success.

INSIGHT

B2B Background Music Digitization

Digitizing the B2B background music market unlocks a large untapped opportunity.
Legacy providers use outdated tech, so a modern SaaS platform has strong growth potential.

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Ola Sars, Founder, CEO & Chairman of Soundtrack Your Brand

In this episode of M&A Science, Ola Sars shares the story of his 20-year journey disrupting the music industry—first by co-founding Beats Music (later acquired by Apple), and now as the visionary behind Soundtrack Your Brand. Ola dives into the bold thesis that’s guided his career, why he’s pursuing a buyer-led M&A approach to consolidate a fragmented background music market, and how he’s turning legacy customer bases into scalable SaaS revenue.

Things you will learn:

How to turn a product thesis into a long-term growth engine
How Ola evaluates roll-up targets based on CAC and subscription quality
What it takes to digitize a legacy industry with B2B SaaS
Lessons from Beats Music, Apple, and Spotify on scaling and selling

______________________ This episode is sponsored by DealRoom! Turn your chaos into control. Tired of chasing updates across spreadsheets and email threads? Discover how DealRoom helps corporate development teams bring order to M&A. 👉 Learn how you can run a repeatable, buyer-led process ___________ Join Kison at the DealMakers Forum in New York City! This event connects the most active players in M&A and corporate finance. Meet top M&A executives, investors, and deal advisors and discover how senior leaders structure and close high-value deals. Register Today! ________________________

Episode Chapters

[00:01:00] Introduction & Background

[00:03:30] Early Thesis in Music Digitization

[00:04:30] Building and Selling Pacemaker and Let’s Mix

[00:06:00] Founding Beats Music & Apple Acquisition

[00:14:00] Lessons from Integration

[00:18:30] Starting Soundtrack with Spotify

[00:25:00] Licensing Challenges & Global Scale

[00:28:30] Organic vs Inorganic Growth

[00:30:00] The Soundtrack M&A Playbook

[00:33:00] Convincing Sellers to Join the Platform

[00:36:00] How Licensing Negotiations Built M&A Muscle

[00:46:00] Looking Ahead Questions, comments, concerns? Follow Kison Patel for behind-the-scenes insights on modern M&A.