Music platform helps musicians get their royalties

SoundExchange is a platform that collects and distributes royalties from online music streaming.

Music royalties have always been a headache for artists, and the age of digital streaming is depriving many musicians of an income. Now a music platform is processing millions of recordings from radio and streaming services to give artists and record labels their fair share of revenue.

SoundExchange is a platform that collects and redistributes royalties on behalf of musicians and their record companies. The non-profit startup, designated by the US Library of Congress, ensures featured artists are paid properly.

Digital radio and streaming services first send playlists to SoundExchange. The platform then combs through billions of lines of data to find musicians and rights holders to pay fees to. But SoundExchange also has millions of dollars of currently unclaimed royalty payments, due to the number of incomplete International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) numbers in its database. To solve this, SoundExchange recently introduced a powerful music search engine, which enables members of the music industry to easily track down artists and rights holders to pay them accordingly.

SoundExchange says it redistributed more than USD 800 million in 2015, and the new search function will help open up music data to the industry.

We have already seen a global record label launched for street artists. How else can labels around the world ensure that artists get their royalties?

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