US-based digital rights agency Audiam has confirmed that it collected over $120 million for its clients over the past four years.
Over 15% of that revenue comes from “recovered” royalties that were earned in the past but never paid, according to the rights agency.
Audiam works for music publishers and songwriters to exclusively license their songs and collect and distribute royalties generated from services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play and more. It represents over 1.2 million copyrights.
Current clients include Bob Dylan, Metallica, Jason Mraz, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jimmy Buffet, Round Hill/Carlin Music Publishing, JM World Music/SAYCO, Maximo Aquirre Publishing/SACM, UnionPacific, Third Side Music Publishing, Clear Box Rights, Rough Trade Music Publishing, Songwriters Guild of America, Epitaph, Sumerian and thousands more.
The news follows the recent launch of Audiam’s Omega: an audit system that collects, generates, and analyzes vast amounts of data about its client’s songs and how their songs earn money.
Audiam also recently named named Jamie Purpora to Chief Operation Officer/President Copyright and Royalty Administration.
Purpora previously served as TuneCore’s President Music Publishing and served 17 years at Bug Music where he was Senior Vice President of Administration.
Audiam was acquired by SOCAN, the Canadian Performing Rights Organization in July, 2016.
“With the passage of the MMA, it’s even more imperative we get this money into the hands of the songwriters and publishers that earned it before it becomes eligible to be taken from them and distributed to other music publishers that did not earn it.”
Jeff Price, Audiam
Audiam CEO Jeff Price, said: “Music has value. Companies using it to make money is fine, they just need to get a proper license and pay a fair royalty. The last part of the equation is for the person or entity that earned the royalty to receive it.
“When we launched Audiam we discovered that many compositions were not licensed, the ones that were licensed had non-compliant and inaccurate statements with over 80% of the recordings of a composition not getting paid on.
Added Price: “We changed that by creating a first of its kind big data analysis and business logic system to display not only how a song is being used and what it earns, but also identify where the holes and lack of payments are.
“With these systems in place we have recovered tens of millions of dollars for songwriters and music publishers and increased their new revenue by over 15% – 30%.
“With the passage of the MMA, it’s even more imperative we get this money into the hands of the songwriters and publishers that earned it before it becomes eligible to be taken from them and distributed to other music publishers that did not earn it.”
Music Business Worldwide