FINLAND (CelebrityAccess) – Last month, Finnish startup Family in Music announced plans to help protect the revenue and rights of songwriters. This week they’ve unveiled a set of digital tools for music creators. The front page of their website says, “We’re building a new music creator network that will revolutionise the way you work and get paid.”
Alongside Family in Music’s founder and chairman, Juka Hynynen, the company has recruited two music industry veterans. Kevin Bacon, founder of the original AWAL (sold to Kobalt and now Sony Music), is Chief Innovation Officer (CIA), and former U2 management team member, Tom Delaney is managing director. Delaney also brings label experience with stints at Island, Mercury, RCA, Arista and J Records. He has also been involved with a variety of music tech start-ups.
Bacon states, “As a songwriter you want to focus on the creative at all times which is how great songs come to be. Our view is that technology has long been part of making music and now we want to harness it to create modern tools for the modern songwriter to enhance their creative and commercial journey.”
The new set of digital tools, as reported by Musicweek will include a song title checker (for duplication), airplay revenue monitoring for songwriters, and blockchain-based music right security. The platform has a particular focus on the DIY creator. The DIY creator space is the fastest growing in the global music industry, as repoted by MIDiA Research. The new set of digital tools are scheduled to launch in the spring and are outlined below.
Song Title Checker
A tool to check whether a song title idea has already been used, or if there are titles that are very similar, so the songwriter can ensure their title stands out on streaming services.
Airplay Revenue
This monitors the radio play of radio stations across the UK and compares it to the tariffs that the royalty collection agencies have put in place. It shows the exact amount of money paid to the songwriter by the radio station for that song. For a writer who is not a member of a performance rights organisation (PRO), Airplay Revenue gives them all the facts about what radio play revenue they are missing out on. For an established writer, it delivers revenue prediction for their cash flow, and allows them to confirm they have received correct payments.
Rights Security
Family in Music recently unveiled MgNTa, a new online music industry identifier to help protect the revenue of songwriters. Because proof of creation is always a major issue for songwriters and the source of many disputes, the MgNTa NFT blockchain-based technology also provides proof of creation security. Audio, lyrics and data are captured and stored via blockchain along with a Timestamp and Audio fingerprint that provides categoric proof of creation and rights for the songwriter.
Cover Song Finder
Songwriters often find it difficult to track any cover versions that appear on streaming services meaning the songwriter will never get paid. There is no enforceable legal requirement to match a cover version to the original recording, so using audio fingerprint technology Cover Song Finder searches over 100m recordings and creates a report of all likely cover versions along with the recording identifier (ISRC code). This report can be submitted to the artist’s collection society, who will update their databases and claim the proper amounts from then on.
