Ed Newton-Rex is an entrepreneur, musician and one of the world’s leading experts and speakers on artificial intelligence and creativity. He founded Jukedeck, the first tech startup in the field of artificially intelligent music composition, which in 2019 was acquired by ByteDance, the company behind social media giant TikTok. He ran TikTok’s AI lab in London and is now the Product Director for Europe at TikTok. Working at the heart of one of the world’s most popular social media platforms, he is expert Speaker on the topics of AI and creativity, digital disruption and the dynamic changes across the digital media landscape.
Having graduated from Cambridge University in 2010 with a Double-Starred First in Music, Newton-Rex learnt to code in order to start Jukedeck and built the company’s first AI technology himself, with investment from Cambridge University. Jukedeck developed patented software that autonomously composed original music on demand, allowing non-musicians to easily create rights-cleared music in seconds. The technology was used to create more than a million pieces of music, which were used as backing music in online videos, ads, TV and radio shows, podcasts and games. Jukedeck won a number of awards, including a Cannes Innovation Lion.
Ed Newton-Rex is also a composer and arranger, with his music published by Boosey & Hawkes and Novello. He has composed music for various choirs, groups and festivals, including the King’s Singers, the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and the BBC Radio 3 broadcast from the Edington Festival, written the music for plays at theatres including the Southwark Playhouse, and arranged music for BBC Radio 1Xtra.
He has been named one of Business Insider’s 30 most creative people in UK tech and is one of 20:40’s Leaders of the Future, announced at the House of Lords in 2019. He has made a number of media appearances discussing AI and creativity, including on the BBC and has spoken on the topic at a number of conferences including TEDx, Mobile World Congress and Slush. In 2020 he was on the judging panel for the International AI Song Contest. Newton-Rex is an Associate at the Cambridge Judge Business School, and has written for The Independent and The Spectator.
Ed Newton-Rex’s insights and humour have made him a compelling and popular keynote speaker and panel expert. Using audio and visual aids, his speeches and talks are invaluable for anyone eager to embrace and enjoy the new creative frontiers where technology and the arts combine – all brought to life by a cutting edge exponent of AI and music, operating at the apex of technology and creativity.
