Robert DiFazio is a music business technologist whose career bridges creative practice, pedagogy, and innovation in music recognition technology. Most recently, he served as Head of R&D at Song Sleuth, where he led the development of analytic tools for the automatic recognition of user-generated music content online. His work focused on cutting-edge audio processing, data mining, and machine-learning methods to detect unlicensed uses of copyrighted works. Robert exited the company following its acquisition by Epidemic Sound in 2025, a milestone that underscored Song Sleuth’s role in tackling the industry’s “black box” problem.
Robert began his career in the early 2000s while completing a Bachelor of Science in Sound Recording Technology at DePaul University, working as a music engineer and studio manager at StudioChicago, and working with artists including Snoop Dogg, Machine Gun Kelly among many others across Chicago’s recording scene. In 2005, he joined the faculty of Columbia College Chicago, teaching courses in music production and business for thirteen years and receiving the Provost’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 2016.
His passion for the intersection of music and technology drew him to the emerging field of Music Information Retrieval, combining audio, music, and computational intelligence. This path led him to earn a Master of Science in Management Information Systems at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Today, Robert serves as Clinical Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Music Business at UIC, where he directs the Bachelor of Arts in Music Business program and continues to mentor the next generation of music industry professionals.