7digital and Utopia Music Partner to Revolutionize Royalty Payments with Enhanced Music Data Intelligence
The music industry is undergoing a notable transformation, driven by the need for greater openness and efficiency in royalty distribution. A key partnership between 7digital (AIM: 7DIG), a leading B2B digital music solutions provider, and Utopia Music AG, a pioneering music fintech company, is poised to accelerate this evolution. This collaboration leverages the strengths of both organizations to deliver faster,more accurate royalty payouts to creators and rights holders – a critical step towards a fairer and more sustainable music ecosystem.
Addressing the Royalty Challenge: A Complex landscape
For decades, the process of tracking music consumption and distributing royalties has been notoriously complex and opaque. Multiple layers of intermediaries, inconsistent data standards, and outdated infrastructure contribute to delays, inaccuracies, and lost revenue for artists and rights owners. Utopia Music is directly tackling this problem with a mission to deliver “Fair Pay for Every Play.” Their innovative platform utilizes modern technology and a vast database of music data to streamline royalty management.
The Power of Data: 7digital’s Contribution
7digital brings to the table its extensive global music database and sophisticated metadata capabilities. With access to audio and track metadata for a catalog encompassing up to 100 million songs, 7digital’s “music-as-a-service” platform provides the crucial foundation for accurate music identification, broadcast monitoring, and copyright enforcement.
This isn’t simply about knowing that a song was played; it’s about knowing when, where, and by whom - and then accurately attributing the revenue generated to the correct rights holders. 7digital’s data complements Utopia’s existing capabilities, creating a synergistic effect that substantially enhances the accuracy and scope of royalty tracking.
How the Partnership Works: A Deeper Dive
The core of this collaboration lies in combining 7digital’s complete music database with Utopia’s next-generation tracking and payout technology. Here’s a breakdown of the key benefits:
Enhanced Music Recognition: The combined data resources enable more precise identification of music across various platforms and formats.
Global Consumption Monitoring: Utopia’s customers can now monitor and measure music consumption globally with greater accuracy.
Faster & More accurate Royalties: Improved data quality translates directly into faster and more accurate royalty payouts to copyright holders – creators, labels, publishers, and Performance Rights Organizations (PROs). Reduced Costs & errors: Streamlined administration and automated processes minimize manual errors and reduce administrative overhead.
* Scalable Solution: The partnership is built on a scalable platform, designed to accommodate the growing needs of Utopia’s customer base.
industry Leaders Weigh In
Paul langworthy, Chief Executive Officer of 7digital, emphasized the strategic importance of this partnership: “It is always exciting to secure a new customer that reflects the competitive strength of our offer. Combining Utopia’s next-gen tracking and payouts technology with 7digital’s leading catalogue and metadata will enable music recognition for up to 100 million songs worldwide and support the whole industry to make more money faster, with fewer costs. We are also pleased to have secured another contract that enables growth and scales as our customer’s business needs do.This contract,in addition to those signed so far this year,means the Company has already secured a 36% increase in platform licensing for 2022 vs 2021.”
Paul Gathercole, Chief Data Officer at Utopia Music, echoed this sentiment: “Utopia is on a mission to deliver ’Fair Pay for Every Play’ to the music industry. We’re going to achieve this by providing the systems and payments infrastructure to enable better tracking of music consumption and faster distribution of royalties to creators and rights holders, with less cost and errors. To make every play count we need to know what’s played when and where,and who owns the rights to any given track - with 7digital capabilities,in addition to our existing data capabilities,this takes us one step closer to unlocking more value in music,for the benefit of all players.”
The broader Implications: A Future of Fairer Music Compensation
This partnership represents more than just a commercial agreement; it’s a significant step towards a more equitable and transparent music industry. by leveraging the power of data and innovative technology, 7digital and Utopia Music are paving the way for a future where creators are fairly compensated for their work, and the entire music value chain operates with greater efficiency and integrity.
The 36% increase in platform licensing for 7digital in 2
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