Orfium, a tech company that ensures artists and rightsholders receive their due royalties from user-generated content (UGC) and broadcast platforms, has partnered with Japanese record label Pony Canyon.
The partnership will see Orfium employing its AI-based matching technology to track the use of Pony Canyon‘s music catalog in UGC on YouTube, the companies said Tuesday (July 23).
This technology aims to maximize and effectively capture revenue for the label and its artists, ensuring that the financial benefits from their music’s use online are fully realized.
Pony Canyon, an anime and music production firm in Japan, the world’s second-largest music market, boasts a roster of prominent artists, including Official Hige Dandism, whose hit song Subtitle was the most popular Japanese track on Apple Music and the third most streamed Japanese song on Spotify in 2023.
The company has, in recent years, made strides to expand its presence beyond Japan, establishing Pony Canyon USA in 2015, and partnering with China-based NetEase Cloud Music in late 2022. That deal gave the latter the right to distribute Pony Canyon’s music catalog, including J-pop and anime music, to Chinese audiences.
For Orfium, the deal marks its fourth major agreement in Asia over the past six months, following successful partnerships with Avex, Bandai Namco, Warner Music Japan, and JASRAC in Japan, and with BROMIS, a consortium of major broadcasters and music rights holders in South Korea.
“To partner with another hugely successful Japanese label, Pony Canyon, is a real privilege for Orfium. Building on our recent partnerships across Asia and beyond, the deal marks further progress in our journey to providing the technology infrastructure for the global entertainment industry,” said Orfium CEO Rob Wells.
“As the evolution of Japan’s digital music market accelerates and it embraces music usage on UGC platforms, we are actively helping creators and rightsholders to capitalize on the changing landscape.”
Rob Wells, Orfium
“As the evolution of Japan’s digital music market accelerates and it embraces music usage on UGC platforms, we are actively helping creators and rightsholders to capitalize on the changing landscape and to track, and get rightly remunerated for, the growing use of their music on new media.”
Alan Swarts, CEO of Orfium Japan, added: “As anime music, and Japanese music more broadly, gains popularity around the world, it is vital to have a global solution to ensure that those who create the music benefit from that popularity. This partnership is another opportunity for us to execute on that mission and I look forward to working with the Pony Canyon team to realize the true value of its repertoire.”
Shinichi Ishii, Music Marketing Div. General Manager at Pony Canyon, also commented on the deal, saying: “We are working hard to ensure that Japanese music is celebrated and appreciated around the world. Now that music released by Pony Canyon is reaching more audiences and our artists are experiencing increasing international success, it is important for us to have the right infrastructure in place for creators to earn royalties when their music is used on YouTube.”
“Now that music released by Pony Canyon is reaching more audiences and our artists are experiencing increasing international success, it is important for us to have the right infrastructure in place for creators to earn royalties when their music is used on YouTube.”
Shinichi Ishii, Pony Canyon
“With the international reach of its team, cutting-edge technology and impressive track record as a trusted catalog management partner in Japan, Orfium is best placed to support us in this mission going forward.”
Music Business Worldwide
