Sage turns business data into music with Financial Symphony

Sage has transformed real, anonymised financial data from businesses across the UK, US, France and South Africa into an original musical composition designed to reveal the hidden patterns within business performance.

The Financial Symphony was created in partnership with data sonification specialists Loud Numbers and performed by a live string quartet, with changes in pitch, tempo and volume directly reflecting the underlying financial data.

The project forms part of Sage’s wider focus on making artificial intelligence more transparent and explainable for businesses through its ‘Glass Box’ approach to AI.

Sage says the project demonstrates how complex financial information can be made easier to understand by showing exactly how data influences the final output.

Research from Sage found that 71% of finance leaders reject AI-driven decisions when they cannot understand how they were reached, highlighting the growing importance of transparency as businesses adopt AI.

The composition uses UK accounting data covering Q1 2015 to Q1 2026 for its string quartet layer, with the duration of each melody note reflecting average invoice payment speeds.

A second electronic and percussive layer draws on data from the US, France and South Africa from Q1 2026, representing the wider flow of global trade.

Aaron Harris, Chief Technology Officer at Sage, said the Financial Symphony brings the company’s approach to transparent AI to life by demonstrating how outputs can be traced back to their underlying data.