Thursday, July 27, 2017

Music Tech: BMI, ASCAP in Alliance

Performance rights groups ASCAP and BMI have teamed up to create what they are billing as a "single, comprehensive database of musical works from their combined repertories that will deliver an authoritative view of ownership shares in the vast majority of music licensed in the United States." 
The move appears unlikely to preempt a recently announced legislative effort to mandate such a database, though the combined database has been in the works for a year, said a spokesperson for the licensing groups. 
The announcement comes less than a week after Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) introduced the Transparency in Music Licensing and Ownership Act, which would create a database for music and sound recordings and make it easier for businesses, restaurants and other establishments that play or perform music to identify the copyright holders so they can be fairly compensated.
ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews called the new database a proactive and voluntary effort to move the industry "a step forward to more accurate, reliable and user-friendly data…Together, ASCAP and BMI have the most expertise in building and managing complex copyright ownership databases." She added, "With our combined experience, we are best positioned to make faster headway in creating a robust, cost effective market solution to meet the needs of the licensing marketplace.”
They said there will be a phased rollout of the database beginning in late 2018 and that it will be "secure, user-friendly and searchable."
The two each maintain a database now, but they will be wedding them for ease of searching, including information on titles, artists, IP names and numbers and more. The two databases will remain on each website during the transition. 

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