Blokur Presents: Enabling the Next Wave of Digital Music Experiences
Last month we hosted an event to hear from some of the companies at the cutting edge of the new generation of digital music experiences to learn about their encounters in the industry and help connect the dots between start ups and rights holders.
It’s no secret that digital music licensing can be confusing and time consuming, even for people that are familiar with the process. Whether it’s trying to track down the rights holders to get permission, working out your budget, or even trying to work out what your current licenses already cover, the process is not straightforward. As Xann Schwinn, founder of singing app Biiah put it:
“I still don’t know what music I can get access to three years into having conversations with publishers and labels across different genres, and so if I’m struggling as a start up that has access to lots of key advisors, what about other start ups in the space?”
Music is an essential ingredient to so many elements of our lives, and in the past few years more and more aspects of our lives have been moving online — whether that’s social media, fitness or video games. This means rich new experiences for consumers, but also opportunities for music to add value to those experiences and share in the value creation.
But those opportunities won’t be realised if it is not easy for entrepreneurs and music companies to do business. So we brought together a group of speakers representing both sides of the equation — start ups looking for great music and rights holders looking to create value for their writers and artists — to discuss how we can enable the next wave of digital music experiences.
B. Mistry, founder of music:defined and Global Music & Business Relations at Peloton, kicked off the night with some useful tips for start ups navigating the licensing process:
“..start small, look at your business, is music integral? Is it a streaming platform? If so, yeah, you definitely need to get everything on there. But if you are a smaller platform you only need about…500 songs.”
The general consensus seemed to be that unless you’re trying to launch the next Spotify, if you are an app looking for music, you do not need ALL the songs. Be selective with the licenses you go for to make the process easier and attainable in terms of budget.
Shrina Patel from Merlin agreed:
“You don’t need [to license] everything, which a lot of people do still think”
Shrina explained how Merlin is using its independent-minded approach to strike creative licensing deals like the recent one between Merlin and Pinterest which was announced on the day of the event.
It was also apparent that there is a big opportunity here for both the apps and services AND rights holders but yet the lack of communication and infrastructure is leading to money being left on the table, with start ups turning to production music libraries instead of enhancing the experience for their users with commercial music.
“During the pandemic I was receiving fitness queries almost daily…unfortunately the structure for licensing isn’t there to facilitate the opportunity. As a result many of these services just went to other options such as production (music) libraries…the recorded industry as a whole is missing out on opportunities on a daily basis, and if we can bring together a solution, the entire industry will benefit.”
— Sam Sawyer, 7 Digital
Or of course, many start ups end up just not using any music at all:
“I’ve met with dozens of start up founders who do not put music on their platform anymore — because they can’t.”
— Xann Schwinn, Biiah
And for start ups that are trying to create an innovative overlap between industries, it can be even trickier, as explained by David Knox from Reactional Music which is connecting the worlds of gaming and music:
“…the current licence models are very difficult. Not only are we trying to do something that is different…for the games industry, but we’re also using a business model that doesn’t fit into any boxes within the music industry.”
It’s not all doom and gloom though! The night proved that there are efforts being made, whether that’s through making subsets of music available to be licensed easily or through intermediaries such as Blokur:
“I’d say Blokur is probably the furthest I’ve gotten in the conversation as far as how much things are going to cost me”
— Xann Schwinn, Biiah
“…we are starting to work with services like Blokur who are in the middle. So finding ways to get music to these smaller apps and smaller services.”
— Shrina Patel, Merlin
Thank you again to everyone who attended the event and an extra special thank you to our speakers who gave us some wonderful insights into the digital licensing ecosystem on the night!
If you would like to learn more about how Blokur can help with the digital licensing process, check out our Apps & Services page to get started
