Essentia
The facts below are what the maker publishes about Essentia, checked and dated. Our editors have not written about it yet.
Plans and prices
From Essentia's own pricing page, checked 14 Nov 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Open-source license (Affero GPLv3) | Free | Non-commercial applications · commercial use requires separate licensing |
The facts
Each one read from Essentia's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Algorithm collection
- The library includes audio I/O, signal processing, statistical, spectral, temporal, tonal, and high-level music descriptor algorithms.checked 14 Nov 2026
- Commercial licensing
- A proprietary license is available upon request; the site directs licensing inquiries to the Music Technology Group.checked 14 Nov 2026
- Download options
- Downloads include releases, Docker images, Python wheels for Linux and macOS, and precompiled extractor binaries for Linux, macOS, and Windows.checked 14 Nov 2026
- Integrations
- Third-party extensions are listed for PureData, Max/MSP, openFrameworks, and Matlab; the library also includes a Vamp plugin for Sonic Visualiser.checked 14 Nov 2026
- Intended users
- Essentia is designed for research experimentation and large-scale industrial audio analysis.checked 14 Nov 2026
- Model license
- Pretrained machine-learning models are offered under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 for non-commercial use, with proprietary licensing available on request.checked 14 Nov 2026
- Purpose
- Essentia is a C++ library for audio analysis and audio-based music information retrieval, with Python and JavaScript bindings.checked 14 Nov 2026
- Streaming mode
- Its streaming mode connects algorithms automatically, uses less boilerplate and memory, and supports many real-time use cases.checked 14 Nov 2026
- Support
- The documentation lists GitHub issues, GitHub discussions, and an FAQ as support routes.checked 14 Nov 2026
- Third-party license caveat
- Some optional third-party dependencies have licenses for which UPF cannot provide full sublicensing rights; product makers must clear rights for required libraries.checked 14 Nov 2026
- Use cases
- Listed applications include music classification, auto-tagging, similarity and recommendation, sound indexing, instrument detection, cover detection, and beat detection.checked 14 Nov 2026
The company
- Founded
- 2006checked 19 Oct 2026
- Maker
- The maker is the Music Technology Group at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF).checked 14 Nov 2026
Where it runs
- Machine learning
- It supports inference with TensorFlow models and Gaia, and provides examples of pretrained TensorFlow and Gaia SVM models.checked 14 Nov 2026
- Platform caveat
- The library supports Linux and macOS, with partial support for Windows, iOS, and Android, and can be cross-compiled for web use.checked 14 Nov 2026
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