Independent music rights administration platform Music Reports Inc. has acquired Blokur, a music licensing and data platform, expanding its range of services offered to music rights holders.
London-based Blokur, established in 2015, operates as a music data and licensing platform connecting music to emerging online experiences.
The company collaborates with music rights owners and diverse online platforms, utilizing unique data matching and rights identification technology to ensure accurate payments for rights holders and facilitate the integration of music into digital platforms.
California-headquartered Music Reports said in a January 31 press release announcing the acquisition that Blokur complements its existing services and technology. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“Blokur will help Music Reports accelerate our matching, registrations, and reporting to enhance our industry-leading platform and surpass our customers’ expectations.”
Michael Shanley, Music Reports
“Blokur will help Music Reports accelerate our matching, registrations, and reporting to enhance our industry-leading platform and surpass our customers’ expectations. By integrating Blokur’s technology, Music Reports will also introduce powerful new tools for the rightsholder community,” said Michael Shanley, VP & GM of Audio Services at Music Reports.
With a presence in over 200 territories worldwide, Music Reports manages various music composition rights, encompassing mechanical, public performance, and synchronization rights. Music Reports operates its own music rights registry called Songdex, and provides other rights services across sectors such as streaming audio, video on demand, television, satellite and radio broadcasting, commercial music, user-generated content, fitness, and music instruction.
Music Reports says it currently handles royalties for “billions of transactions” per month.
“To meet the needs of Music Reports’ rapidly growing list of top-tier customers, we are continually improving and scaling our global solutions for music rights.”
Jeremy Verba, Music Reports
“To meet the needs of Music Reports’ rapidly growing list of top-tier customers, we are continually improving and scaling our global solutions for music rights,” said Jeremy Verba, CEO of Music Reports.
Blokur CEO Phil Barry also commented on the partnership, saying, “We are so proud of what we’ve accomplished in the last eight years at Blokur and look forward to augmenting Music Reports’ royalty payout processes and content identification systems.”
“Joining forces with the team at Music Reports allows us to scale our technology platform and deliver for the next generation of companies seeking to include music in their offerings.”
“We are so proud of what we’ve accomplished in the last eight years at Blokur and look forward to augmenting Music Reports’ royalty payout processes and content identification systems.”
Phil Barry, Blokur
Music Reports, touted as a rival to mechanical rights clearing house Harry Fox Agency (HFA), was fully acquired by private equity company MidOcean Partners in 2020.
In 2016, Pandora joined forces with Music Reports to oversee the mechanical licensing and royalty administration for its on-demand streaming service. This collaboration was perceived as a step to prevent legal challenges similar to Spotify‘s experience in 2015, when it faced two class action lawsuits amounting to over $150 million each for alleged lapses in providing accurate mechanical royalty payments to songwriters.
Music Business Worldwide
