When Sting recently joined David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks and Bob Dylan in selling his back catalogue of songs to one of the world’s big record labels, it was music to the ears of Paul Wiltshire.

For the founder and chief executive of online music marketplace Songtradr, such deals can mean big business. The new owner will invariably turn to Songtradr to help commercialise the catalogue by matching songs to a commercial party – such as an advertiser, a film production house, a video game maker, a retailer, an app designer or a podcast maker – that is looking to set the right mood with the right piece of music.