Canada-based collection society SOCAN has acquired B2B music tech provider Medianet – in a bid to ‘ensure that creators and music publishers, including artists and all relevant rights owners, are properly compensated for their work’.
Seattle-based MediaNet has previously powered services including Beats Music, CÜR Music and Songza and boasts a database of more than 51 million recordings – each containing a unique audio identifier with robust master rights information.
SOCAN says the buyout will make it ‘the leader in accurate matching of music data’ and ‘will especially increase revenue streams for all whose music is played on digital platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, SoundCloud and other services relying on uploads’.
These claims are reminiscent of those put forward by AMRA, the Kobalt-owned digital mechanical and performance rights collection society re-launched last year.
SOCAN, which represents the performing rights of more than four-million music creators and publishers, says it will now be able to ‘augment already strong matching capabilities for all kinds of performances and reproductions of music on radio, digital, live, satellite, film and TV and other delivery of music to public audiences’.
It claims that it now offers ‘a level of data accuracy and transparency that few, if any, music rights organizations in the world can provide’.
“The music ecosystem is in need of data and accuracy and, with MediaNet, SOCAN is the first major music collective to meet this need,” said SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste (pictured).
“This will especially increase revenue streams for all whose music is played on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, soundcloud and other services reliant on uploads.”
SOCAN
“The expanded family of MediaNet and SOCAN creates an unbeatable combination that will help drive proper compensation for SOCAN’s membership base of songwriters, composers and music publishers and potentially for all parties involved in the music value chain.”
SOCAN adds ‘the potential for increased matching on radio, TV and in areas such as nightclub performances is substantial’, while promising a ‘dramatic improvement in digital match-rates and the speed of distribution of digital royalties’.
MediaNet will continue to operate under its current name, with all of its 34 employees continuing at the organization’s Seattle offices.
CEO Frank Johnson and the company’s leadership team will remain in place.
“SOCAN is a leader in ushering the transition from physical to digital through a commitment to data and artist advocacy,” said Johnson.
“We are thrilled to join the SOCAN family and realize our shared goal of pioneering high-scale technology solutions that ensure fair and accurate royalty administration.”
The acquisition was completed in May 2016, the terms of which are undisclosed.
Headwaters MB acted as financial advisor and Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt LLC as legal counsel to MediaNet in this transaction. Venable LLP, Gowling WLG and KPMG advised SOCAN on the matter.Music Business Worldwide
