Salt, a UK-based royalty processing firm described as the “music society back-office SaaS platform for processing and distributing rightsholder royalties” has raised a new round of funding.
The new investors in Salt include songwriters and producers such as ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart and Quincy Jones, in addition to Canadian songwriter and producer Dan Kurtz.
The investment has seen Björn Ulvaeus join Salt’s board alongside Robert Ashcroft, former Chief Executive of UK collection society PRS for Music, and Roger Faxon, former Chief Executive of EMI.
Meanwhile, Dan Kurtz joins as Senior Vice President for the Americas and Niclas Molinder is appointed as Head of Industry Relations.
Ulvaeus’ investment in the company arrives less than a year after Session, the song data startup he founded with producers Max Martin and Niclas Molinder in 2019, was acquired by Salt.
Other investors in Salt’s latest strategic funding round include private equity company Lansdowne Investment Company and the family office of Nicolas James Group.
Salt says that its royalties platform “processes usage, matches ownership and calculates royalty distributions”.
It claims that it “provides societies with royalty–processing software as advanced as the services they track, so they can pay rightsholders quickly and accurately”.
Salt’s other software platform Session allows songwriters, producers, artists and other performers to assign the correct metadata and songwriting credits to their work during the creation process, “as well as share music releases with the downstream industry, all for free”.
Salt claims that its services will help songwriters access the so-called ‘Black Boxes’ of unclaimed or misallocated royalties.
Salt has already signed a 10-year deal to process over €3 billion (£2.6bn, $3.4bn) of music royalties with its first customer, BumaStemra, the Dutch music collection society representing the interests of music authors and publishers.
The first payments to thousands of Dutch songwriters using Salt technology have already been issued.
Salt has also just signed a deal with The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) in the US to provide data matching services to improve music rights and royalties collection for music creators.
The MLC administers blanket mechanical licenses for eligible streaming and download services, collecting royalties due under those licenses and paying music publishers and administrators; ex-U.S. collective management organizations (CMOs); and self-administered songwriters, composers, and lyricists.
“We’re proud that people of the stature of Dave, Quincy, Dan and Björn, who have created some of the most played music of all time, have invested in our plans to help other musicians and songwriters.”
Doug Imrie, Salt
Salt CEO Doug Imrie said: “Making and distributing music is easier than ever. But the systems for crediting and rewarding creativity are stuck in the pre–digital era, unable to compete in a world where 140,000 tracks are added to Spotify every day.
“That’s why we created Salt. It plugs into existing back-office systems, processing usage, matching ownership and calculating distributions with cloud-powered speed and accuracy. With Salt, music creators will get played AND paid.
“We’re proud that people of the stature of Dave, Quincy, Dan and Björn, who have created some of the most played music of all time, have invested in our plans to help other musicians and songwriters. We also warmly welcome Lansdowne Partners as investors to help fuel Salt’s global expansion.”
“I am delighted to have joined the board of Salt and to work with this team of committed industry experts to bring transparency and accuracy to the music industry.”
Björn Ulvaeus
Salt board member and investor Björn Ulvaeus, who is also President of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), added: “I am delighted to have joined the board of Salt and to work with this team of committed industry experts to bring transparency and accuracy to the music industry.
“Salt’s revolutionary technology will enable the smooth and secure flow of royalty payments to the very people who make the music and keep this industry thriving, ensuring they get fair pay for every play.”
“For the music industry to survive and flourish, it’s vital that creators get swift and accurate payments for their work.”
Dave Stewart
New Salt investor Dave Stewart added: “It’s 40 years since we released Sweet Dreams but now for many new songwriters and artists, getting paid for their work has become a bit of a nightmare.
“For the music industry to survive and flourish, it’s vital that creators get swift and accurate payments for their work. Salt is the solution that songwriters have been waiting years for and that’s why I wanted to invest.”Music Business Worldwide
