Just two months after it swooped for B2B music tech provider Medianet, Canadian collection society SOCAN has acquired Jeff Price‘s Audiam.
The move sees SOCAN expand into the collection of mechanical rights in the US and Canada, as well as associated licensing and royalty distribution.
Audiam locates metadata for every sound recording of a specific composition, recovering due mechanical rights revenue for songwriters, composers and music publishers.
It currently represents thousands of publishing/songwriting catalogues for the likes of Bob Dylan, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Jack White, Jason Mraz, Steve Miller, Imagem, Victory, Epitaph, Sumerian and Round Hill Music
SOCAN said the Audiam buy empowers it to “provide a unique global music industry solution with respect to licensing digital services and royalty payment for songwriters, composers and music publishers”, and offer “a comprehensive database and metadata of all musical works and commercially released digital sound recordings, and the technology and business understanding to match and connect the two, issue licenses and get rights-holders paid all they have fairly earned”.
Importantly, in the wake of the NMPA‘s recent settlement with Spotify, SOCAN says the acquisition will enable “music creators and music publishers to be paid accurately, while removing liability, infringement and data issues for streaming music services and YouTube“.
“In 2013 Audiam shook up the music royalties system by identifying and correcting serious gaps in the digital music rights value chain, particularly with music used in YouTube videos, by correctly matching data to the rights-holder,” said SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste (pictured).
“By acquiring Audiam, SOCAN steps even further ahead with our vision to lead the global transformation of music rights with substantial new tools for our more than 135,000 member songwriters, composers and music publishers, dramatically expanding our ability to ensure that creators are properly and fairly compensated.”
“By acquiring Audiam, SOCAN steps further ahead with our vision to lead the global transformation of music rights.”
Eric Baptiste, SOCAN
Jeff Price, founder and CEO of Audiam, said: “SOCAN is not only the most technologically advanced, efficient and transparent music rights organization on the planet, but its board of directors and executive team are singularly focused on assuring all the works of composers and publishers are licensed and that rights-holders are paid for the use of their music.
“Adding SOCAN’s resources and knowledge to Audiam allows us to finally fix the global industry problems, remove liability for services and get rights-holders paid.”
Audiam was founded in 2013 by TuneCore founder and former CEO Jeff Price and former TuneCore CTO David Willen.
It identifies the use of music and correct data on digital services such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Google Play and others, and get rights-holders paid, greatly expanding and enhancing the capabilities of SOCAN.
The SOCAN acquisition was made final in July, and Audiam will remain a separate organization under its current name for the foreseeable future.
Jeff Price will remain Audiam’s CEO and will work closely with SOCAN group CEO Eric Baptiste and his team.
SOCAN now boasts of controlling “the world’s most complete databases of sound recording and underlying song/composition metadata as well as sophisticated audit and auto-match technology to proactively find works that are not licensed and royalties that have not been paid”.
SOCAN plans to integrate Audiam’s other strong business lines such as North American licensing and administration of mechanical income from digital services, including Spotify, Google Play and Apple, as well as leverage Audiam’s proven track record to identify and recover pre-existing mechanical royalties that typically have remained unpaid.
Audiam’s services will be available immediately to all SOCAN members. Existing Audiam clients will see their services enhanced by the leveraging of SOCAN’s own technologies.
On May 12, 2016, SOCAN announced its purchase of Seattle-based MediaNet, a pioneer business-to-business music technology provider offering 360-degree music rights administration to SOCAN members.
SOCAN represents the Canadian performing rights of more than four-million Canadian and international music creators and publishers, representing over 135,000 Canadian members.
SOCAN licenses more than 130,000 businesses in Canada, and distributes royalties to its members and music rights organizations around the world. SOCAN also distributes royalties to its members for the use of their music internationally in collaboration with its peer societies.Music Business Worldwide
