We’re excited to start the year with three company launches: Music Tech Works’ rightsholder.io, Feed Media Group’s Adaptr, and Trqk.
“Rightsholder.io‘s founders have a fresh approach on solving an age-old problem in music licensing: how to find important data, quickly. Music licensing is “a big enough market to care about [but] small enough the broader industry hasn’t decided to serve,” says Bryson Nobles, CTO of Rightsholder.io parent company Music Tech Works. That’s a problem when many industry pros need information on a song’s ownership and publishing, as well as other rights. So, Nobles and Jarrett Hines, Music Tech Works’ CEO, set out to build Rightsholder.io, a platform that gathers the necessary information in one place.” Read more on Billboard.
Feed Media Group, a technology company helping businesses use music to create more engaging experiences, has partnered with Warner Music Group to launch Adaptr, a platform that fosters the growth of innovative new apps by allowing developers to easily and legally integrate music into their experiences on an interactive basis. Learn more about the platform in Music Business Worldwide and MusicAlly.
Trqk announced in December the launch of its “visualization, detection, and insight platform for performance royalties,” which you can read about at Music Ally. Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer (CCO) David Della Santa was profiled in Music by Clio, providing insights on the company and his opinion on how brands and musicians can better work together. David also talked about Trqk in the first episode of the new podcast Frequency. In addition, David spoke at the Digital Entertainment World (DEW) Conference on a panel titled “Getting in Sync: Emerging Tools and Strategies for Easier Music Sync Licensing” earlier this month.
Our very own Laurie Jakobsen will join her long-time mentor and friend Paula Batson on Smartest People in the Room tomorrow! Tune in to hear some of their favorite career stories and anecdotes.
We’re proud to have worked with the NY Tech Meetup and its successor the NY Tech Alliance for 10 years, promoting the entire tech ecosystem in New York City. In January, the NY Tech Alliance released its 2020 Report on “Driving Access, Equity, and Inclusion in the NY Tech Community.” The organization also had its first Founder Spotlight of the year, featuring Rebekah Bastian, CEO & Co-founder of OwnTrail and previously vice president of product and vice president of community and culture at Zillow. The Founder Spotlight is a bi-weekly webinar in partnership with Grasshopper Bank. All past conversations are available on-demand on NYTA’s YouTube channel.
Over the past 12 months, Exactuals‘ flagship product, PaymentHub, experienced 250% year-over-year growth, and eclipsed $1 billion in all-time dollars processed! You can read more about this in Digital Music News and Music Business Worldwide.
Besides, Exactuals’ RAI team has been working with The MLC’s Data Quality Initiative (DQI), along with music data companies Blokur, Music Data Services, and TuneRegistry. The DQI provides a streamlined way for rights-holders to compare their musical works data with The MLC’s to ensure consistency. All RAI clients need to do is upload their data via RAI’s new self-service upload functionality to check their data. More information on The MLC’s website.
In addition, Exactuals’ CPO Ilie Ardelean participated in the Music Business Association’s (Music Biz) webinar “Article 17: Are We Ready?” on December 9th. Ilie joined the panel “Going Beyond Content ID: Is Universal Licensing Possible?” with moderator Portia Sabin (Music Biz) and fellow panelists Wilson Hays (Pex), Jeff Liebenson (International Association of Entertainment Lawyers), and Abby North (North Music Group / Unchained Melody Publishing). On February 11, Exactuals’ Co-Founder and CEO Mike Hurst participated in a keynote conversation during the Digital Entertainment World Conference (DEW). The conversation, titled “The Fin-Tech Side Of RightsTech: Modernizing Payment Of Royalties And Residuals,” also featured moderator Paul Sweeting, Founder and Principal, Concurrent Media; Verna Grayce Chao, Executive Vice President, Treasury Management Solutions, City National Bank; and Jason Kassin, CEO, FilmTrack.
Soundstripe has been in the news quite a bit lately! Co-Founders and Co-CEOs Travis Terrell and Micah Sannan have been profiled respectively in Muse by Clio and Music Connection, while the company’s third Co-Founder Trevor Hinesley was named to the Nashville Business Journal’s 2021 40 Under 40 list. Congratulations!
In addition, the team counts two new members: 20-plus-year music, tech, and entertainment industry veteran Drew Weaver joined as Chief Operating Officer (Music Row), and Sourav Nayak is now Soundstripe’s VP of Finance (All Access and Music Row).
Soundstripe has also inked a deal with video creation platform Waymark that grants it access to Soundstripe’s Enterprise API. Once integrated, in addition to the ability to make premium videos in minutes, Waymark customers will also have access to Soundstripe’s full catalog of high-quality music for use in their projects (more in Small Business Trends and Music Row).
Made in Memphis Entertainment’s (MIME) Co-Founders David Porter (CEO and legendary soul man) and Tony D. Alexander (President and Managing Director) talked to the Memphis Flyer about MIME’s mission and 2020 accomplishments, including over 1 million streams for 14 of Beatroot Music’s artists, a Gold-certified album and two Platinum-certified singles recorded at 4U Recording, and several major sync placements for the likes of the NFL and NBA from Heavy Hitters Music, to name a few.
In addition, MIME and Beatroot Publishing, two prominent independent music
publishing companies that are part of the MIME family of businesses, have shored up their reach around the globe thanks to a new sub-publishing deal with Sentric Music Group. Under the agreement, Sentric will handle international administration for MIME and Beatroot Publishing writers and catalogs, enabling lucrative worldwide opportunities for their songwriters. MIME and Beatroot Publishing will continue to administer their catalogs in North America. Read more here.
Besides, MIME recently promoted Jessica Vaughn and Tim Burnett to lead Heavy Hitters Music Group. Jessica now serves as Heavy Hitters’ Vice President, Sync & Creative. Tim Burnett, who has been upped to Senior Director of Business and Publishing Administration for Heavy Hitters, was also named Senior Director of Music Publishing Administration for MIME. Click here to learn more.
The Executive Committee of the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) recently met and selected AIMP Nashville President John Ozier (EVP Creative, Reservoir) as its new National Chair. He succeeds Teri Nelson-Carpenter, who remains the President of the Los Angeles Chapter. Read more at Music Row. Congratulations, John! The announcement follows the AIMP’s 2021-2022 Board of Directors elections, which were held in November and announced in December during each Chapter’s annual meetings. Check CelebrityAccess for full results from all three Chapters.
In January, the AIMP hosted a series of weekly webinars, including “AIMP & IMPF present: The State Of The Music Publishing Industry Post-Covid. How Are We Going To Do In 2021,” featuring Ender Atis (COO Budde Music Publishing), Michael Lau (CTO Round Hill Music / NY Chapter President, AIMP), Michelle Lewis (Co-Founder SONA & Award-winning songwriter), Mary Jo Mennella (Founder & CEO Music Asset Management), and moderated by Emmanuel Legrand (Independent Journalist & Editor of the Creative Industries Newsletter); “Being Creative In A Pandemic: How It Has Affected Songwriters, Publishers, and Labels,” with panelists Bart Butler (Producer & Songwriter (Mojo Music & Media)), Laura Veltz (Grammy-Nominated Songwriter (Big Machine Music)), Carly Strickland (Manager of A&R, Big Machine Label Group), Chris Van Belkom (VP, Combustion Music), and moderated by Shannan Hatch (President, Fourward Music); “Music Industry Report – 2020: Exposing the Value Gap,” in partnership with Exploration, including speakers Aaron Davis (CEO, Exploration Group), Miranda Mulholland (JUNO-Nominated Musician & Label Owner of Roaring Girl Records), and Dave Pomeroy (World-renowned Bassist, Writer, & Producer and President, Nashville Musicians, AFM Local 257), moderated by Rene Merideth (COO, Exploration Group); “David Israelite/NMPA – Music Publishing Update,” Israelite’s annual update on the state of the music publishing industry. Recordings of past events are available on-demand for members at www.aimp.org.
In February, the organization hosted “COVID-19 Resources, Part 2,” which focused on new resources available to songwriters, and a “Production Music Webinar.”
The AIMP will continue to host its monthly events online as webinars in the coming months, with a full calendar of upcoming events available at www.aimp.org. On February 25, join us for the last webinar of the month, “Live Streaming in the COVID Era,” hosted by AIMP NY.
Finally, the “AIMP Nashville Pubcast” is back for a fourth season and launched with an episode featuring hit songwriter/producer and founder of Red Creative Group,Jeremy Stover. A new episode will be released every other week until the end of March – you can already stream “Legal Wins and Updates from 2020” featuring David Israelite (NMPA), and “5 Points to Improve Admin” with Robert Briggs (Levity Music) on your favorite podcast platform. The Pubcast is sponsored by Songtrust and has joined the American Songwriter Podcast Network. Read more in Music Row.
Save the date: the Association’s annual Global Music Publishing Summit will be held online from June 7-9. Stay tuned for more info.
In December, DDEX published three new standards, two of which were principally designed to support communication by and with The MLC, which officially became operational for the new U.S. blanket mechanical license on 1 st January. You can learn more about these standards here. On March 11, DDEX will be hosting a webinar titled “Learn about developments in the Recording Data and Rights Standards.” Register for free here. Finally, the 37th Virtual DDEX Plenary will take place from April 19 to April 23, 2021. Keep an eye on this page for more information.
Deborah Mannis-Gardner, the “Queen of Sample Clearances” and Founder of DMG Clearances, Inc, was named to Billboard’s 2020 Women in Music list. Very well deserved! She then kicked off 2021 by discussing music clearances at the Virtual Sync Summit on January 8, joining a panel featuring Mara Kuge (Founder of Superior Music Corporation) and Ted Cohen (Founder/Head of Corporate Development, Mediatech Ventures). She also spoke at AIM Sync 2021 on February 11, giving a Clearance Masterclass alongside moderator Sarah Williams (IMPEL) and panelists Camilla Waite (Deputy General Counsel, PPL) and Naomi Pohl (Deputy General Secretary, Musicians Union).
In December, FanTracks‘s production of Goo Goo Dolls’ “It’s Christmas All Over – the movie musical” made some noise. The augmented-reality movie musical was showed in Encore Live’s drive-in movie theaters across the US in December and through January 2021. Read more about this on Variety.
Great news from Angry Mob: singer-songwriter Jake Scott reached 126 million Spotify streams in 2020, while Tokyo (feat. Xira) from 3LAU (co-written by Schmarx & Savvy) passed 12M streams. In addition, Rune Westberg’s latest song with Baywud reached No. 1 on Monie’s indie radio in the UK. (We don’t want to) Walk Alone remained No. 1 on the radio in the Great Lakes Region for over 4 weeks.
In the latest episode of the Musonomics podcast, host Larry Miller of NYU Steinhardt explores the history of music, sound, and games, and speaks to Jon Vlassopulos, the Global Head of Music at gaming platform Roblox, about the platform’s music events, and what’s coming in the future. The evolution of video games has been entwined with the music industry since the 1970s; dependent on related tech developments and targeting a similar consumer audience. Video games have become a significant revenue stream for music artists from e-sports, rhythm games, and titles like Grand Theft Auto. Now Fortnite, Minecraft, Twitch, and Roblox have changed the context for how music interacts with the gaming experience, and with the pandemic keeping people at home, have become a primary channel for many artists to reach their fans. Listen here.
