Lack Of A Centralized Song Database Stymies Digital Licensing.

A year after the Copyright Royalty Board set rates for subscription downloads and interactive streaming, digital licensing and payment accounting is still proving to be a trying task in the U.S. marketplace.

Not surprisingly, the lack of a common database containing metadata for all songs is still a big obstacle, even though it should be easier to create one in the United States than in Europe, where there are more than two dozen performance and reproduction rights societies.

It’s a topic that weighed heavily on the minds of panelists at a National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers’ Salon Series event held Feb. 22 in New York. The gathering was the second in a planned series of industry get-togethers that NARM is holding to address issues of concern to member companies.

The discussion “validated the urgent need for the industry to work collaboratively on streamlining business practices and adopting operational standards that will take costs out of the system and help advance the digital marketplace,” NARM president Jim Donio said in a statement.

Digital service providers have to license music and pay royalties directly to publishers for music consumed through subscription services and ad-supported Web sites. As a result, the lack of a central database continues to stymie the marketplace, NARM panelists said. Read the rest of this entry »

Title: Streamlining Digital Licensing

Date & Time: 2/22/10 4:00 PM

Location:

Soho House
29-35 Ninth Avenue
New York
NY 10014

Link: Click here

Description

Join us as industry experts examine the issues surrounding the difficult task of licensing large-volume catalogs of music publishing for today’s digital and mobile business models. Our panel will discuss how companies can better navigate the terrain in order to succeed in the ever-changing and challenging digital music landscape.

Panelist
Moderator: Patrick Sullivan, President & CEO, RightsFlow
-Stephen Hillenbrandt, SVP Business Affairs and Deputy General Counsel, CBS Radio
-Richard Conlon, VP, New Media & Strategic Development, BMI New York
-Douglas Keogh, EVP/ GM, Roadrunner Records
-Maurice Russell, VP, Licensing, Collections & Business Affairs, The Harry Fox Agency
-John Simson, Executive Director, SoundExchange

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Santa Monica, CA, October 31, 2008 – P2P — friend or foe of the entertainment industry? The battle raged on at the Digital Hollywood Conference on Thursday, with plenty of some times rowdy audience participation at a mid-day panel discussion.
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BFM Digital, a Valley Village, Calif.-based digital music aggregator, has hired New York-based RightsFlow, to handle their mechanical, streaming, ringtone, and digital phonorecord delivery licensing.
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New York, NY, October 29, 2008 – BFM Digital, a leading digital music aggregator and distributor of independent music, has signed with RightsFlow, an outsourced licensing solution for mechanical, streaming, ringtone, and Digital Phonorecord Delivery (DPD) licensing, to handle their DPD licensing needs through RightsFlow’s proprietary “FLOW” system. BFM Digital will now offer the DPD licensing service to its label clients.
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Title: DCIA P2P Video Conference at Digital Hollywood Fall
Location: Santa Monica, CA
Link out: Click here
Description: Panel Title: “Next Generation P2P Music, TV and Film – DRM, Paid for Pass-Along, Ad-Based and Other Legal Distributed Computing Models and the Entertainment Industries”
Panel Date: October 27th, 2009
Panel Location: Santa Monica, CA
Panelist/Moderator: Patrick Sullivan, President of RightsFlow (Panelist)
Summary:
This panel discussed the role of P2P companies and whether they should take any responsibility for the actions of their members, in addition to addressing the roles and responsibilities of ISP’s and how they impact the industry with their business.
Other Panelists
Marty Lafferty, CEO, Distributed Computing Industry Association (Panel Moderator)
Bill Wishon, Director of Marketing, Kontiki
John Jones, Senior Vice President of Programming, Artist and Label Relations, MediaNet Digital
Ronny Golan, Co-Founder & CEO, HIRO Media
Johan Ryman, Director of Sales & Partnerships, Octoshape
Scott Sahadi, CEO, ioko North America
Michael King, CEO, Abacast
Start Date: 200-10-27
End Date: 200-10-30

Title: College Music Journal (CMJ) Music Marathon
Location: New York, NY
Link out: Click here
Description: Panel Title: “Who’s Up for a Pub Crawl?”
Panel Date: October 21st, 2008
Panel Location: New York, NY
Panelist/Moderator: Alex Holz, Director of Client Relations (Panelist)
Summary:
The panel discussed music publishing in the context of ‘pub crawls’ focusing on the social aspect of publishing and the importance of strong relationships. The panel also allowed musicians and artists to play their music and receive feedback from the panel regarding the potential publishing uses for each.
Other Panelists:
Dave Pichilingi, Liverpool Sound City / Livewire Capital / Sentric Music (Panel Moderator)
Sara Kapuchinski, Stage 3 Music
Ron Perry, Songs Publishing
Jessica Sobhraj, SirGroovy
Jeremy Yohai, Downtown Publishing
Date: 2008-10-21

Title: College Music Journal (CMJ) Music Marathon
Location: New York, NY
Link out: Click here
Description: Panel Title: “Global Mobile Music Business”
Panel Date: October 24th, 2008
Panel Location: New York, NY
Panelist/Moderator: Patrick Sullivan, President of RightsFlow (Panelist)
Summary:
The panel addressed issues concerning the growth of mobile applications and use in today’s world and considerations were made about the future of mobile revenues, which have been expected to grow dramatically over the next five years.
Other Panelists:
Stephen Block, VP Business Affairs and Senior Counsel, HFA (Panel Moderator)
Are Traasdahl, CEO, Thumbplay
James Williams, Senior Contract Administrator, Business & Legal Affairs, Cherry Lane Music
Date: 2008-10-21

EMI Music Group is joining forces with Blackstone Winery and RightsFlow to raise funds for World Hunger Year’s Artists Against Hunger and Poverty initiative. The charity initiative involves a Blackstone promotion that offers customers two free songs from more than 160,00 tracks provided by EMI. Each time a customer uses a redemption code to download the new music, Blackstone will make a donation to the WHY campaign. RightsFlow is managing the technology behind the program. The campaign will run through Jan. 31, 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

Patrick Sullivan will be a guest speaker at this year’s Digital Hollywood event, being held at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel from October 27th-30th.

The event will cover new trends in music, film, television, and entertainment media and feature key guest speakers from all areas.
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