Why Sound Changes How We Feel w/ Oscar Höglund, CEO - Epidemic Sound | Ep 362

The Futur with Chris Do

The Futur

Design, Self-improvement, Education, Business, Marketing, Arts

5 • 976 Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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In this episode, Chris sits down with Oscar Höglund—Co-Founder and CEO of Epidemic Sound—for an inside look at the mindset, strategy, and resilience it takes to build a billion-dollar business at the intersection of music, media, and tech.

From cold-starting a music licensing company in Sweden to scaling a global brand used by YouTubers and filmmakers around the world, Oscar shares the real story behind Epidemic’s rise—including the decisions that nearly broke the business, the bets that paid off, and why creativity and data don’t have to be enemies.

If you're a creator, founder, or anyone trying to do big things without burning out, this episode is packed with honest insights on scaling with soul, leading through uncertainty, and staying rooted in purpose while navigating growth.

Timestamps:

(00:04) – The Origins of Epidemic Sound

(06:42) – Startup Struggles and the First Big Pivot

(12:15) – Licensing, Creators, and the Market Gap

(19:08) – Building Culture and Protecting Simplicity

(25:36) – Creativity vs. Data: Finding the Right Balance

(33:14) – Leadership Lessons in Hypergrowth

(40:10) – Advice for Founders: Curiosity, Courage & Staying Human

Check out today's guest, Oscar Höglund:

Oscar's Website: https://corporate.epidemicsound.com/

Oscar's LinkedIn: https://se.linkedin.com/in/oscarh%C3%B6glund

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The one sense that you cannot turn off is your ears.
0:03.8	They're always on.
0:05.1	If you put out a piece of content and you don't have audio, you don't have sound, it's like
0:09.5	empty calories.
0:10.6	You can understand that content, but you can never feel it.
0:13.8	Pick a movie, any movie you want to watch.
0:15.7	Watch it without sound.
0:16.8	See how you feel.
0:17.7	Yeah.
0:17.9	My name is Oscar Hugglund and you are listening to The Future.
0:23.5	Hey, everybody, as you feel. Yeah. My name is Oscar Houglund and you are listening to The Future. Hey, everybody, as you can tell, I'm not at home and we're live and in person.
0:28.1	And it just so happens.
0:29.3	I have the CEO, the epidemic here in front of me and we're in Austin.
0:34.7	We made this work.
0:35.6	So thanks to your team for making this happen.
0:42.1	Welcome to the future. Amazing. Thank you for having me. So here's what I think we should do. You said something to me the last time we spoke via Zoom that you had this whole theory
0:47.9	about why music is infinitely repeatable, whereas movie is not so much so. Maybe that's where we
0:53.9	begin this. And that's where we begin this.
0:54.5	And now it's a weird place to begin.
0:56.0	I find it fascinating that content lives on this spectrum.
1:03.0	And the way I see the spectrum is, on the very one sort of far side,
1:08.0	on one extreme, we have music, and on the other side, I would say that we
	...

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