San Francisco-based blockchain-powered music platform Audius has partnered with rights administration platform Music Reports to power the licensing of rights and payments to music publishers through its Songdex Marketplace opt-in licensing platform.
Music Reports, which claims to be “the world’s most advanced rights administration platform,” provides music copyright administration services to clients in traditional and digital media, from startups to what it calls “the largest enterprise customers and in virtually every country of the world”.
The new partnership follows Audius’ launch of its music marketplace last year, which provides a platform for its 6 million users to support artists with direct payments.
The company also announced that it partnered with independent distributor DistroKid to allow indie artists to upload their music to Audius.
Elsewhere last year, Audius teamed up with Ampsuite, the label operations management platform owned by Beatport, to allow labels to distribute their music to Audius.
Audius, which describes itself as a “global decentralized music community and discovery platform,” is owned and run by an open-source community of artists, music fans and developers globally.
The Audius platform is powered by its own crypto token, $AUDIO, allowing artists to retain control of how their work is distributed and providing them with new revenue streams.
The company counts Katy Perry, Nas, and the Chainsmokers, as well as SESAC CEO John Josephson, former Sony Music Publishing boss Marty Bandier, Three Six Zero founder Mark Gillespie, and all-round music biz mogul Guy Oseary among its backers.
Audius raised $5 million in funding from these investors back in 2021.
“Music Reports is the best-in-class company behind getting songwriters and publishers paid quickly and efficiently from billions of streams in more than 230 territories around the world,” said Audius co-founder and CEO Roneil Rumburg.
“This deal with Music Reports is a major milestone on our path to build the licensing infrastructure to ensure that artists, songwriters and other rights holders get paid when they interact with the Audius music marketplace.”
Roneil Rumburg, Audius
He added: “This deal with Music Reports is a major milestone on our path to build the licensing infrastructure to ensure that artists, songwriters and other rights holders get paid when they interact with the Audius music marketplace.”
“We are happy to be supporting their mission by providing licensing and royalty payment administration to music publishers that will scale with the pace of Audius’ growth.”
Jason Walker, Music Reports
Jason Walker, CEO of Music Reports said: “Audius is a next generation platform that deepens the commercial relationship between artists and their fans in a very direct way.
“We are happy to be supporting their mission by providing licensing and royalty payment administration to music publishers that will scale with the pace of Audius’ growth.”
Music Business Worldwide