Business News Labels & Publishers

SoundExchange updating site to more quickly deal with data disputes

By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 9 October 2019

US collecting society SoundExchange is in the process of adding new functionality to its website which, it says, will “further empower music creators and their authorised representatives by providing artists and sound recording copyright owners with enhanced ability to manage their existing repertoire and to make new claims on recordings in our databases”.

SoundExchange represents record labels and recording artists, collecting royalties from US-based satellite and online broadcasters. Like any collecting society, it manages a database of its members’ works so that it knows who to pay each time a recording is played.

The changes aim to make it easier for SoundExchange members to log new records, to check on what recordings and royalty shares are currently linked to their account, and to see and respond to unclaimed or disputed tracks.

The latter change is particularly important, as a common problem with collective licensing is when works reported by licensees as played are unclaimed, or where two members claim the same work. Both can result in payments being delayed or missed entirely.

The society says: “We are excited to share that this update will also provide [members] with the ability to self-manage overlaps and disputes with other [members]. By moving this process from our bi-annual ’email rounds’ to the [online member platform] we will be able to bring new overlaps to your attention in near real-time and reduce resolution times by months”.

Some of the updates will be available to both label and artist members, others just to labels. Full info here.