An open-source platform will help rights holders track royalties more easily.
Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, SoundCloud, Netflix and SiriusXM have joined forces with Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music on an initiative that should change how digital royalties are paid, Pitchfork reports.
The Open Music Initiative (OMI) is being run by Berklee College of Music’s Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship (BerkleeICE) in cooperation with the MIT Media Lab, and is creating an open-source platform to track music creators and rights owners to improve how they’re identified and compensated for digital music.
Major labels and streaming services are part of the 50+ media bodies involved in the initiative “to create a shared digital architecture for the modern music business,” according to OMI co-founder Panos Panay.
He continues: “We believe an open-sourced platform around creative rights can yield an innovation dividend for creators and rights holders alike.”
In June 2015, Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek announced that the company had paid out over $3 billion in royalties, with $300m of that coming in the first 3 months of 2015 alone.
