London-born tech company OCL has appointed three well-known names in music business circles to key positions.
Owner and Chairman of Beggars Music and Chairman of UK Music, Andy Heath (pictured), has been appointed Chairman of OCL, with Serge Acker formerly Global Chief Digital Officer, L’Oréal (and ex-Ralph Lauren, Philips and Apple) coming in as CEO.
In addition, former VP Global Digital Business, Universal Music Group PJ Dulay has been appointed SVP Music and Media Relations.
OCL, which says it ‘specialises in making copyright compatible with technology’, has also taken the wraps off its new Totem framework, which it says can help rights-owners monetize user-generated content (UGC).
The firm claims that Totem can be used to clear, monetise, and license any use of media including music, video, text and photography ‘in any application or on any device anywhere in the world’.
‘Any copyrighted asset can be both identified and cleared for use instantly, before infringement can occur, with no need for punitive fingerprinting models and measures that often causes conflict for both artists and their fans,’ says the firm. ‘Totem ensures there are no more protracted negotiations and battles for rights owners who can now set their own terms and rates in advance.’
Rupert Hine, Co-founder of OCL said, “Instead of a race to the bottom, we wanted to encourage a race to the top. One of the key partner groups for the Totem framework are the millions of smaller app developers who want to include creative, copyrighted assets such as music, images, videos or text in their offerings.
“We are at a time where artists, creators, brands, and consumers all seek to rekindle a lost relationship with one another, damaged by the inexorable devaluation of worth. OCL can build it anew, founded on authenticity, trust and truth.”
Serge Acker, OCL
“Currently if a smaller developer or platform wants to enhance their users experience with media, there is only a single path available to them, which involves spending an inordinate amount of time and money obtaining rights and paying advances they cannot afford. They also need to build tools to track & report usage and handle payments.
“Developers also open themselves up to prohibitive liability because they are managing the rights of another party, something that they likely have no expertise handling.
Alan Graham, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of OCL said, “While rights owners and developers have a symbiotic relationship, they tend to see each other as adversaries, because there is no model or technology that allows them to foster a relationship as partners, in conjunction with rights users.”
He added: “There is a graveyard of apps and platforms that failed to pull off obtaining and then monetizing media successfully. Developers aren’t typically rights users, and yet we continue to give them a great deal of responsibility over something they should not be making decisions on. We knew there needed to be another option. OCL and Totem remove these challenges, allowing developers to focus on just building great apps, instead of worrying if they’re doing things correctly, or that their app may be removed from app stores because they made an error somewhere.”
PJ Dulay, SVP Music & Media Relations for OCL said: “OCL appeals to me not because it solves one problem, it unlocks a number of apparently insurmountable “problems” and turns them into opportunities.
“The initial focus is app developers because the economics and scale tells us there’s money on the table, which the music and other creative industries aren’t participating in, and which OCL can unlock.”
Serge Acker, CEO of OCL said, “From the second I saw Totem in action, I knew I needed to be part of this. We are at a time where artists, creators, brands, and consumers all seek to rekindle a lost relationship with one another, damaged by the inexorable devaluation of worth. They can build it anew, founded on authenticity, trust and truth.”
Totem will soft launch early this summer with a full roll out planned in Q3.Music Business Worldwide
