Identifying cover songs, live performances, AI clones and more
Covers and other versions
Imagine you’re at a nightclub. The DJ plays a song. You love it, but you don’t know what it is. You pull out your phone, use it to “listen” to what you’re hearing, and in a few seconds, you’re given the track title and artist of your new favorite song. We’ve all done this. No big deal, right? This form of automatic content recognition (ACR) — making a 1:1 match between recordings — is well established across consumer and business applications. These applications compare a given sound recording to a set of reference recordings and find an exact match if one exists.
But what if the song was instead being performed live in that nightclub? What if it was an impromptu cover by a different artist in a totally different style? How will you know what it is if there is no exact reference for the ACR application to compare to?
That problem — version or cover identification — is much harder than 1:1 matching between recordings. With 1:1 matching, you are comparing the exact same recording characteristics: the same instruments, the same chords, the same tune, all in the same order. But recognizing a cover or a live performance requires musical or lyrical knowledge to detect the underlying composition no matter how it is realized: maybe in a different key, at a different tempo, with different instruments and singers, or no singers at all. Maybe it has different lyrics or chords or rhythms, with the sections changed around. Maybe there is new musical material interspersed or mixed in.
The variety and sources of covers are nearly endless. Classic songs like The Beatles’s Yesterday have been covered many thousands of times over the course of decades by artists of all genres: Hip-Hop, Death Metal, Country, Opera, and more. New songs by popular artists are often covered the day they drop as a way for lesser-known artists to capitalize on the song’s rising popularity. Some covers are major commercial successes themselves, like Run DMC's cover of Walk This Way or Dolly Parton’s recent cover of Stairway to Heaven. When it comes to social media and user-generated content (UGC), the pool expands even more. We have Puddles the Clown performing a novelty cover of the music to Stairway to Heaven with the lyrics from Gilligan's Island, all kinds of instrumental covers of the theme to Game of Thrones, kids covering rap songs at high speed, or Doja Cat including a bit of Milkshake inside Mooo!. Today, anyone with a phone can make a video of themselves singing or playing anything and distribute it to the world.
If you run a digital media business, how will you identify when versions of copyrighted songs are uploaded to your platform?
Audible Magic’s technology
This new type of ACR can be accomplished by Audible Magic’s Version ID, and we have recently been granted two fundamental patents for our technology: one that uses melody, harmony, sound and structure (US 11,294,954 B2 Music cover identification for search, compliance, and licensing) and one that uses lyrics and phonemes (US 11,816,151 B2 Music cover identification with lyrics for search, compliance, and licensing).
With Version ID, there is no simple audio feature like our MFCCs or Shazam’s spectral peaks that are used for 1:1 matching of sound recordings. Instead, we need to look at deep aspects of the sound that are invariant to differences in master recordings, but that are also specific enough to say yes, this is a version of that tune, and to be able to say that with high accuracy. This is why we have two patents, one that considers all aspects of the musical sound, and one that looks at the lyrics and underlying phonemes. Both are implemented in Audible Magic’s Version ID using a variety of AI and expert-system techniques. Combining them into a single, powerful ACR product allows us to identify a wide range of covers and versions. Let’s listen to a few examples of what Version ID can recognize.
An AI clone of Radiohead's Creep
Recently we’ve seen a flood of AI cloned-voice covers out in the wild, where a creator uses a model of a well-known artist’s voice to create a version of another artist’s song. Sometimes these appear with very different music accompaniment, usually in the cloned artist’s style. This version of Creep is a good example of that, where Radiohead’s guitar-oriented-rock original has been transmuted to a somewhat lounge-y version for the Frank Sinatra clone to croon over. Even though the music seems quite different on first hearing, the chords, melody, structure, and lyrics are the same, and our Version ID picks up all to successfully identify this as a version of Radiohead’s Creep.
A parody of Like a Virgin
Like most parody versions, the words in this example are completely altered: Hey, like a surgeon / Cuttin' for the very first time. But Weird Al wants the music to be recognized, so besides his voice singing in a slightly different key, the chords, melody, instrumentals and structure are the same. This allows our music-based Version ID to match the track as a version of Madonna’s Like a Virgin.
A live version of the same
Sometimes live versions, even by the original artist, are very different from the original. An artist might do this to keep an audience surprised, to keep up with changes in tastes and styles, or just to have fun. Sometimes the lyrics will be changed a little to make comments about things like current affairs or politics, but enough of the original will usually be there for us to identify it. In this case, the accompaniment of the Madonna performance has definitely been updated as compared to the original recording, and there is an entire stadium of fans singing along to the chorus. Yet the chords, melody, structure, and lyrics can all be used by Version ID to connect this back to the original recording of Madonna’s Like a Virgin.
An acoustic cover of Tupac’s Keep Ya Head Up
Tupac’s anthem to black womanhood and the death of Latasha Harlins is covered here by Chicagoan Melody Angel. The musical accompaniment is completely different, with solo guitar chording under a bluesy melody compared to Tupac’s almost entirely spoken rendition over a strong beat. There is nothing here that can be detected by a version ID system that uses musical features – no common beat, chords, or melody. But the lyrics are the same, and that is how we match it.
We talked about interpolations, like how Doja Cat uses a bit of Milkshake in her track Mooo! We see that here too, where we can easily pick up in the lyrics – and a bit in the melody – how the song’s chorus is based on The Five Stairsteps’ O-o-h Child. Version ID will report timing information for any matches it find, so in this case it will be clear that the interpolation is only the chorus.
A piano cover of Beyoncé’s Halo
Many cover versions have no lyrics at all, either because the original composition was an instrumental to begin with (think TV or film theme music), or because the cover artist wanted to highlight their arrangement or their instrument. Piano covers are very common, as in this multi-platinum-viewed version of Beyoncé’s Halo for piano solo by J. M. Quintana Cámara. Here our Version ID relies on the fact that the chords and melody and structure are the same in the two, even though the instrumental and musical character couldn’t be more different.
For more than 20 years, Audible Magic has innovated B2B solutions in content identification (both music and TV/Film), music catalog fulfillment, and rights administration. Audible Magic powers billions of monthly transactions to serve customers all around the world. Its music identification services are used to help reduce the number of DMCA takedown notices and administer licenses for user generated content (UGC). Version ID is the latest piece of this suite of capabilities, based on patented technologies that have been developed over the last ten years. We would love to hear about your use case and to work together to help solve your problems. Contact us to learn more.
- Erling Wold, Chief Scientist and Technologist
How to integrate Audible Magic with Amazon IVS to identify copyrighted content
This blog was co-authored with Amazon AWS and was originally published on the AWS for M&E Blog on January 25th, 2024. The original blog can be found here: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/media/how-to-integrate-audible-magic-with-amazon-ivs-to-identify-copyrighted-content/
Introduction
Amazon Interactive Video Service (Amazon IVS) from Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a managed live streaming service that enables businesses to build interactive experiences and applications to delight their customers with low-latency live video streams.
Customers have leveraged Amazon IVS and built user generated content (UGC) platforms for use cases ranging from live shopping to fitness, education, gaming, and live event experiences over live video. As users engage with these platforms built on top of Amazon IVS, there is the potential for both bad actors and well-intentioned users to stream copyrighted content. This may pose challenges for customers that need to receive and process takedown requests. Even with proper licensing, the use of copyrighted content may require attribution and reporting. In both cases, the ability to properly identify copyrighted content becomes important.
How Audible Magic Technology works
Audible Magic’s Emmy-winning automatic content recognition (ACR) technology presents a possible solution. Leveraging longstanding first-party relationships with thousands of record labels, music publishers, and other rights holders, the integration of Audible Magic’s ACR technology within Amazon Interactive Video Service may help to provide a protective shield for platforms and rights holders, while helping to establish a trustworthy environment for creators and consumers. Audible Magic’s solution enables UGC platforms to actively monitor and filter out unauthorized content while enabling the recognition and reporting of licensed content. It is designed to help reduce DMCA takedown notice disruptions and ensure accurate license administration.
Audible Magic’s ACR technology is tuned to identify copyrighted content embedded in user-generated media. When media is uploaded to a platform, the platform sends digital fingerprints of the media to Audible Magic’s information service, where they are compared to reference fingerprints submitted directly to Audible Magic by content owners. The service then returns results indicating a match or no-match condition. If matching content is found, the content owner’s business rules are returned by Audible Magic’s information service. Business rules express the content owner’s wishes to either block or allow content in a media sharing environment.
The next section of this blog post describes how to integrate Audible Magic’s ACR technology with Amazon IVS to enforce copyrights in live-streamed content.
IVS and Audible Magic end-to-end solution architecture
The simplest of the multiple ways to integrate Audible Magic’s ACR technology service with Amazon IVS.
When a stream begins, it generates a “stream started event” on the event bridge, which triggers an event rule. This trigger pushes a message containing stream information to a SQS queue, where an ECS service reads the message and starts scanning the stream with Audible Magic’s Toolkit. Whenever copyrighted material is identified, a JSON response file is generated with information about the match and is saved to an Amazon S3 bucket. Additionally, an email notification is sent pointing to the location of the JSON response file.
Handling toolkit responses
There are many ways you can use the responses from Audible Magic to take action on the detection of copyrighted content. For example: 1) sending notifications to an AWS Lambda function to display the currently playing song in an overlay on the screen, 2) muting portions of the stream that contain copyrighted content, or 3) automatically changing the song. Ultimately, Audible Magic’s Toolkit responses can extend out through a variety of applications and enable businesses to take actions that align with their content policies.
Email notifications can also help keep track of identifications that occurred during a stream. Further analysis of these identifications may aid with: 1) policies to prevent streaming copyrighted material in the future, 2) reporting on music usage, or 3) making informed edits to a video before VOD publishing.
Integrating Audible Magic – detailed steps
This section provides a walk through the steps to achieve the integration outlined in the end-to-end architecture diagram. If you would like to try these steps in your account, use the step-by-step guide with code samples linked here: AMToolkit identifyStream on AWS ECS
Integration prerequisites
Before any integration can take place, there are a few prerequisites that will allow for the entire system to work as intended. You will need:
- An Amazon IVS channel with streaming software setup. Refer to the Getting Started with Amazon IVS guide to learn how to create a channel and set up a live stream.
- An Audible Magic Toolkit package that contains the software needed to make identifications. You will be provided with an Audible Magic Toolkit package after you have signed up for Audible Magic Identification services.
- An Audible Magic Toolkit configuration file that informs the Audible Magic Toolkit software on how to perform according to your specifications. You will be provided with an Audible Magic Toolkit configuration file after you have signed up for Audible Magic Identification services.
To sign up for Audible Magic Identification services, please contact Audible Magic through its Contact page.
Once you have these prerequisites in place, you can proceed through the rest of this blog post to set up stream identification with Audible Magic. Let’s get started with the integration steps.
1) Create an Amazon S3 Bucket
Create an S3 bucket to hold the responses delivered by the Audible Magic toolkit.
A JSON response file is generated with information about matches found, and is saved to this S3 bucket.
2) Create an Amazon SQS queue
Create an Amazon SQS queue for messages about newly started streams. When a stream begins, it generates a “stream started event” on Amazon EventBridge, which triggers an Event Rule. A message containing stream information gets pushed to an SQS queue, where Amazon Elastic Container Service reads the message and starts scanning the stream with Audible Magic’s Toolkit.
3) Create an EventBridge event rule
Create an EventBridge Event Rule to generate a message when a new stream starts. This message will be sent to the SQS Queue.
4) Attach EventBridge event rule to SQS queue
With the SQS Queue and EventBridge Event Rule created, connect them so the EventBridge can send messages to the SQS Queue whenever an Event Rule is triggered.
5) Create toolkit wrapper application
An application needs to be written that interfaces with Audible Magic’s identifyStream binary, which is embedded within the Audible Magic Toolkit. This application will perform the following while parsing live-streamed content:
- Pull message from SQS queue
- Parse for channel-arn
- Parse for stream-id
- Retrieve stream playback URL using channel-arn
- Start scanning stream with identifyStream
- Monitor for Identification Response files
- Push Identification Response files to the S3 Bucket
Pull message from SQS queue
Messages about new streams will be pushed to the SQS queue created earlier. The Toolkit wrapper application will need to pull, parse, and delete these messages while taking the appropriate action on each.
Retrieve stream playback URL using channel ARN
After pulling the message from the queue, parse the “channel_arn” and use that to obtain the stream playback URL.
Start scanning stream with identifyStream
At this point, all necessary pieces to scan the live stream for copyrighted content using identifyStream are configured. Next, create a function that will run identifyStream using the appropriate parameters, and place the results in an accessible location.
Monitor for identification responses
Since identifyStream responds with matches in real-time during a broadcast, it’s important to monitor for results as they are generated. Identification results are saved locally; next, write a function that will monitor the directory for creation of new files. Files are saved in “/app/{stream_id}” directory.
Push Identification response files to S3 bucket
When new files (identification match results) are detected in the monitored directory, push these files to the S3 Bucket created earlier.
6) Create Docker image of the toolkit wrapper application
With the application now written, create a Docker image using Dockerfile and Docker command.
7) Upload the toolkit wrapper application Docker image to AWS Elastic Container Registry (ECR)
Create the Elastic Container Registry (ECR) repository in which the Docker image will reside.
Prior to pushing the Docker image to ECR, verify that the ECR repository can be connected via Docker using the username “AWS”. Then, tag your local Docker image with the appropriate AWS ECR location and push it to the ECR repository. Ensure the presence of the Docker image in ECR by listing the repositories with the appropriate name Ex. “am-stream-identification”.
8) Create an ECS task
Create an ECS task that defines the criteria needed to run the Docker image. Ensure the task definition contains information about: 1) the SQS Queue from which the application will read messages, 2) the S3 Bucket to which the application will save identification results, and 3) the image that the Docker container will use as its base image.
9) Create ECS service
Create an ECS service that will launch the ECS task. ECS service is named as “am-stream-identification-service”. The ‘desired count’ of this service is set to 1. This will automatically start a single instance of the am-stream-identification-task.
10) Adding email notification integration
Without having to check the S3 bucket for new JSON response files, you can set up email notifications using AWS Simple Notification Service (SNS) to email you whenever an identification match has is made. The email notification feature is optional and can be skipped.
Create a Simple Notification Service topic
The first step in setting up email notifications via SNS is to create an SNS topic. Allow S3 to publish to the SNS Topic. Once the SNS topic can receive notifications from the S3 bucket, add the push notification capability to the S3 bucket that is triggered whenever a new JSON response file is created in the identifications bucket.
Link email address to be sent notifications
In order to receive an email notification via SNS, link the email address that should receive the email notifications. Now, whenever a JSON response file is saved to the S3 bucket, an email message is sent (formatted in JSON) with information about the JSON file, including the location (key) and size.
11) Testing the Integration
With the ECS Service fully set up and running, you can test the Audible Magic identification service against a live stream. Start a stream to your Amazon IVS channel. A message should automatically be sent to the SQS queue that was set up previously. The Audible Magic identification service will scan the stream as long as it is active. Whenever the service finds a match to copyrighted content, a JSON response file with the match results will be produced and saved to the S3 bucket that was created earlier in this guide, within a folder named after the stream-id of the active stream.
Conclusion
In this article, we demonstrate how to set up a fully functioning automatic content recognition solution in just a few simple steps using Audible Magic’s ACR technology integrated with Amazon IVS. If you’re interested in validating this solution using a proof of concept, please visit https://www.audiblemagic.com/contact/.
About Audible Magic
For more than 20 years, Audible Magic has innovated B2B solutions in content identification (both music and TV/Film), music catalog fulfillment, and rights administration. Audible Magic powers billions of monthly transactions to serve customers all around the world. Its music identification services are used to help reduce the number of DMCA takedown notices and administer licenses for user generated content (UGC). Its catalog fulfillment services are a robust set of APIs that enable you to easily integrate and customize music experiences for your app. Audible Magic is a trusted intermediary and approved vendor between major platforms and rights holders (including music labels, distributors, publishers, collectives, and TV/Film studios). For more information, visit https://www.audiblemagic.com/.
HitPiece Officially Launches Music Artist NFT Platform and Announces First-of-its-Kind Partnership with Audible Magic to Ensure Authentic Experiences
Music NFT marketplace gaining popularity inks deals with a number of leading artists, including ATL Jacob, Lil Gotit, Lil Gnar, Matt Ox
PROVO, UTAH – August 10, 2022 – HitPiece, the easiest place to create and buy authentic music artist NFTs, has officially launched its platform out of beta. In addition, the company - to protect creators and other rights holders and demonstrate their commitment to authenticity - has announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with Audible Magic, the leader in identifying music rights that enable music use by social media platforms, NFT marketplaces, metaverses, and gaming applications.
The new integration with Audible Magic marks the first of its kind music NFT and Web 3.0 partnership incorporating automated identification services to determine ownership and related rights. Audible Magic’s RightsRx™ service compares uploaded audio to its authoritative content registry of more than 25 million media assets from the creators, music labels and publishers. HitPiece will use Audible Magic’s identification technology to help verify ownership of new music prior to minting of an NFT; thus ensuring only legitimate content is distributed. Audible Magic identifies content so creators can focus on maximizing Web 3.0’s new revenue and engagement opportunities rather than losing earnings to fraudulent sellers.
“We’re excited to join the rapidly growing innovative NFT, Metaverse and Web 3.0 marketplace with HitPiece to continue our commitment to protecting creator rights,” said Vance Ikezoye, President and CEO of Audible Magic. “Through our extensive music registry, music creators and related rights holders on and off HitPiece can be assured the content they own is protected; or monetized where permission has been granted.”
“Following many positive conversations with artists, we’re excited to launch the official HitPiece platform to provide creators with a new way to engage with fans and build metaverse communities,” said Rory Felton, CEO and co-founder of HitPiece and music industry veteran. “As someone who has seen every corner of the industry, too often creators are not in control of how and when they can release content. NFTs for music artists will continue to expand, and we’re grateful for partners like Audible Magic who help us ensure we have guardrails to provide an easy and secure one-stop shop for those in the music community joining the expanding world of Web3.”
Felton co-founded The Militia Group in 2000, a record label that Sony invested in and later acquired the major assets of. In 2021, he co-founded HitPiece to create an NFT marketplace that allowed music creators to easily mint digital assets and build the future of Web3 communities. Built for crypto first-timers, music artists/owners, and music fans, the platform makes NFTs simple to collect and show off, while providing a channel for artists to enjoy exclusive engagement opportunities with their fanbases. Once artists sign up and are verified, they are granted access to their own portal and page where they can upload creative content and control the minting, release, and utility of their NFTs. Fans can purchase NFTs from their favorite music creators to get access to exclusive experiences and content, including music, as well as show off their fandom in their own ultimate metaverse music room.
Since the end of the beta phase, HitPiece has collaborated and finalized deals with dozens of creators including ATL Jacob, who recently topped Billboard’s Hot 100 Producers and Songwriters Charts. In addition to providing artists with their own page, the HitPiece team also guides creators and their teams through the creative ideation process, collaborating with them on launch timeline, marketing strategies, and community development initiatives in channels such as Discord.
“In music, Web3 has significant potential to be a catalyst for increasing artistic integrity, control, and engagement for any musician, no matter their reach,” said ATL Jacob. “I’m grateful to partner with organizations like HitPiece that understand the business first-hand and put hardworking creators first, and I hope the rest of the industry continues to follow suit.”
Creators can register with HitPiece now to begin minting and selling their NFT collections. Fans can connect to the marketplace with their private metamask wallet for their favorite artists’ digital content and exclusive experiences at www.hitpiece.com. Additional wallet integrations to be announced in the future.
About HitPiece
HitPiece is a Web3 software that enables rights holders to sell and mint NFTs. Created by a team of music and blockchain experts, HitPiece is a conduit between the communities of collectors of NFT’s and artists. All NFT’s for sale on HitPiece are authentic and official straight from the creators, unlocking a new way for artists to engage with their fanbases and create a layer of community ownership. For more information or to begin using your cryptocurrency wallet to purchase exclusive experiences, access, content and more, visit https://www.hitpiece.com.
About Audible Magic
For more than 20 years, Audible Magic has innovated solutions to identify content, provide fulfillment solutions, manage rights, and monetize media. Audible Magic’s Emmy-winning automatic content recognition (ACR) technology powers billions of monthly transactions. The Silicon Valley pioneer is the trusted intermediary between major platforms and rights holders (including labels, studios, distributors, publishers, and collectives). For more information, visit https://www.audiblemagic.com/.
BMAT and Audible Magic Partnership to Deliver Global Music Rights Administration Services to the Metaverse
BMAT Music Innovators and Audible Magic Partnership to Deliver Global Music Rights Administration Services to the Metaverse
Los Gatos, Calif. – April 19, 2022 – BMAT Music Innovators will team with Audible Magic to deliver a world-class rights and royalty administration service to Digital Service Providers (DSPs). Music licensing is quickly evolving with the rapid technological advancements in social media, fitness, gaming, podcasts, live streaming, NFT platforms, and other Web 3.0 applications. Rights administration vendors need to keep pace with the ever-changing needs of these emerging DSPs. The partnership between BMAT and Audible Magic combines the industry-leading capabilities of both companies in content recognition, content fulfillment, data matching, royalty and claims reconciliation, machine learning, and copyright expertise.
The administration of music licenses worldwide requires scalable and flexible technology solutions combined with a global view of music rights to ensure DSPs and rightsholders can effectively work together to deliver outstanding music experiences around the world. This partnership lets users listen to the music they want and how they want it while artists, songwriters, and other rights holders are correctly paid.
BMAT works with all industry players to amplify the value of music, including over 100 Collective Management Organizations (CMOs) and Performance Rights Organizations (PROs) across 124 countries. As part of its mission to index all music usage and ownership data, BMAT facilitates a thriving relationship between DSPs and CMOs, at both operational and business levels. By bringing their technical expertise into play, they enable the automation of metadata-complete music reports from over 40 DSPs worldwide.
"We're delighted to partner with Audible Magic to support and enhance the processes behind music usage for various platforms. Their turnkey services of music delivery and identification, as well as relationships with record labels combined with our understanding and associations with publishers, CMOs, and PROs will enable platforms to better manage music licenses and reputation within the creators' community," said Jakue López Armendáriz, VP of Digital at BMAT.
"This partnership will be a net positive for both music creators and businesses since it'll make it much easier for new platforms to include music in their services while ensuring that creators get paid accurately and fairly," said Dani Balcells, BMAT's Regional Manager for North America.
Audible Magic, known for its Emmy award-winning automated content recognition services, has added the world’s most extensive music catalog in the last year consisting of over 100 million tracks, music fulfillment, and rights administration to its capabilities. Platforms that provide music-based experiences, whether it is user-generated content (UGC) on social media or virtual experiences in the metaverse, can engage one vendor, Audible Magic, to help power those experiences to end-users no matter their location.
“I am excited that we have found such a complementary partner in BMAT. Managing music rights requires different approaches from territory to territory. The partnership combines our strengths to bring creative music delivery and licensing models to the market,” said Vance Ikezoye, President and CEO of Audible Magic. “BMAT’s capabilities are a key part of Audible Magic’s ability to provide platforms with a single point of contact to use music in territories worldwide seamlessly.”
About Audible Magic
For more than 20 years, Audible Magic has innovated solutions to identify content, provide fulfillment solutions, manage rights, and monetize media. Audible Magic’s Emmy-winning automatic content recognition (ACR) technology powers billions of monthly transactions. The Silicon Valley pioneer is the trusted intermediary between major platforms and rights holders (including labels, studios, distributors, publishers, and collectives). For more information, visit https://www.audiblemagic.com/.
About BMAT Music Innovators
BMAT is a music innovation company with a mission to index all music usage and ownership data. They help all different companies in the music industry better their data operations to make sure artists get paid for their plays. Every day BMAT delivers 27 billion matches and 80 million identifications to CMOs, publishers, record labels, broadcasters, and DSPs globally.
Driven by machine learning and copyright expertise, BMAT’s Music Operating System pumps neutral data and authoritative knowledge to everyone along the chain. Everyone who makes or uses music can plug in to ease operations, increase earnings, and get in sync with everyone else.
Contacts:
Julia Hutchinson
Audible Magic Marketing Manager
[email protected]
Diana-Emilia Bolboacă
BMAT Communications Manager
[email protected]
Maximize the Value of Licensed Music
Our everyday online experiences would not be the same without music as a backdrop. Whether it is another dance challenge on a social network, the latest concert on a gaming platform, or a challenging online spin class, these experiences are better with music.
The market is experiencing a convergence of services as platforms strive to capture users’ attention and build a community. In this dynamic online market, we see platforms changing formats from short-form to long-form content, offering experiences such as live-streaming concerts that are beyond their original mission and expanding into new territories as their user base grows. Music use is converging with social media platforms now licensing music while music streaming platforms are enabling UGC uploads.
As a key part of a platform’s offering, a music catalog becomes an important asset and is integral to a platform's current and future success. There are several steps that will help a company maximize its catalog.
- First, a platform will want to clear as many tracks as possible.
- Second, the company will need to monitor music use to identify usage trends and understand what additional music, such as a new genre, it may need.
- Finally, a platform will need to build strong relationships with rightsholders by consistently meeting contractual obligations.
The mechanics of managing a catalog can be complex. While some platforms keep catalog management in-house, most turn to vendors for assistance.
Key Hiring Decisions: Identification, Fulfillment and Rights Administration
Once a platform obtains licenses, whether for user-generated content, fitness, gaming or music listening, the next critical phase is to hire one or more vendors to enable the mechanics of the licenses, and power the music experience for the end-user. This includes the identification of songs to know which tracks are allowed or not in UGC uploads (Identification); the delivery of cleared, licensed music to the end-users (Fulfillment); and the tracking, reporting and royalty payments for use of licensed music (Rights Administration).
Hiring these vendors is a crucial step that can impact:
- The breadth of music available
- Building trust with labels, publishers and CMOs, especially timely and accurate royalty payments
- Quickly expanding territories coverage for the service
- Ensuring new releases are quickly cleared and available
The Advantage of a Single-Vendor Solution for Fulfillment and Rights Administration
Platforms often use multiple vendors. This solution can work. However, there is an advantage to using a single vendor with established relationships that is responsible for both receiving and reconciling multiple data streams from unrelated data sources including labels, publishers, PROs, and CMOs; and traversing the complexities of tracking, reporting and payments.
For UGC-hosting platforms, having an identification vendor along with fulfillment and rights administration in one vendor adds to the ease of managing data, reconciliation, reporting, and payment.
If there are issues clearing tracks, site owners will avoid having to coordinate between multiple vendors to find a resolution. A delay or lack of resolution may result in fewer tracks being available to end-users and the challenge of reconciliation and clearance only increases as a platform’s catalog grows and expands into new territories.
Insights into the Catalog
A strong vendor will also provide insights into the constant changes that happen with a catalog at the operational delivery and the business level, including new songs, restricted artists, and territory changes. Offering additional insights like providing a list of new releases that are relevant to the platform’s end users.
Finally, an experienced rights administrator will produce accurate and timely reporting to meet each rightsholder’s requirements across multiple territories and parties. This solidifies a positive working relationship between rightsholders and the platform and sets the stage for future licensing opportunities.
Audible Magic Offers a Suite of Integrated Services to Manage Music
- Licensing Support – Understand what is cleared and not cleared
- Fulfillment – Deliver cleared music to your platform now
- Content Identification – ID and track music on your platform
- Royalty Administration and Payment – Report royalties and pay labels, publishers, CMOs and PROs
Contact us to learn more about how we offer a single vendor solution for managing music on music-hosting platforms.
Bolo Indya Partners with Audible Magic to Manage Licensed and Unlicensed Use of Music
New Delhi, 21 July, 2021: Bolo Indya, India’s first home-grown and most preferred social live-streaming platform, announced that it has partnered with Audible Magic, the leading provider of rights management and identification solutions. The partnership allows Bolo Indya to proactively manage both occurrences of licensed and unlicensed copyrighted media on their site.
Bolo Indya needed an identification service known for accuracy, ease of use and offered an extensive registry of music from around the world, including native music. Bolo Indya worked with Audible Magic to quickly deploy the scalable identification service to respond to the explosive growth in live streaming and short-form videos on their site.
Commenting on the development Varun Saxena - CEO and Founder, Bolo Indya said: “We are committed to providing industry-leading copyright solutions for user-generated content on our platform. This expanded solution will use Audible Magic’s robust technology to support the compliance and licensing of user-generated content on our platform. We are delighted to partner with Audible Magic to help us achieve our goal.”
Bolo Indya is the first of its kind indigenous live streaming platform and is off to a blazing start with a new redemption method, dual live streaming, and other features. Bolo Live, the live streaming capability by Bolo Indya has been embraced by many renowned organizations and personalities since its launch. In the past few months, the platform has witnessed some special moments on Live, including informational talks about COVID-19 by health experts, Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi talking to thousands of viewers through MannKiBaat, Ministry of AYUSH hosting International Yoga Day Live on Bolo Indya, interviews with celebrities, and record-breaking viewership.
Audible Magic provides proven solutions for platforms to protect their brand’s reputation while using music in user-generated content, streaming, radio, and downloads. Platforms can speed time to market by avoiding building the extensive systems needed to identify content, manage licenses, and ensure they meet their reporting and payment obligations.
Vance Ikezoye, President and CEO at Audible Magic: “We are pleased to help Bolo Indya to identify licensed and unlicensed use of copyrighted music proactively. The partnership leverages our strength in content identification technology, coupled with the trust we’ve built with rights holders.”
About Audible Magic
For more than 20 years, Audible Magic has innovated solutions to identify content, provide fulfillment solutions, manage rights, and monetize media. Audible Magic’s Emmy-winning automatic content recognition (ACR) technology powers billions of monthly transactions. The Silicon Valley pioneer is the trusted intermediary between major platforms and rightsholders (including labels, studios, distributors, publishers, and collectives). The company works with a wide range of platforms and rights holders, including Facebook, Twitch, SoundCloud, Dailymotion, Vimeo, NBC Universal, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, The Orchard, CDBaby, and DistroKid. For more information, visit audiblemagic.com .
About Bolo Indya
Bolo Indya is the fastest-growing social live streaming platform. Bolo Indya stands unique as it works towards empowering the next billion internet users of India, by allowing them to transform their social capital and virality into financial independence by unlimited earning every month. It brings to the table the amalgamation of short videos, local languages, UGC as a driver, and Passion economy as the fuel for empowering the internet users of Bharat, taking the penetration of peer-to-peer financial transactions to tier 2 and tier 3 cities of India.
The Bolo-Live streaming feature comes with an integrated real-time gamification in the form of a gifting option where creators can be rewarded by their follower base basis the content quality, density as well as engagement which can be redeemed in cash on the Bolo Indya platform.
The EU Copyright Directive Went Into Effect on June 7, 2021 — Are You Ready?
EU member states were given until June 7, 2021, to transpose the EU Copyright Directive into national legislation. This law affects most online content sharing service providers, including social media platforms, that make available, organize and promote for profit-making purposes copyrighted content uploaded by users. Despite the pandemic slowing the process, several states, including Germany, France, Hungary, and the Netherlands, have completed transposing or adopting the directive into their country’s law. Other countries are not far behind, but the reality is that platforms need to comply on June 7th.
The UK, having left the EU, will not be implementing the directive.
What are the Key Things You Need to Know?
The two main provisions of the directive for platforms include:
- Obtaining licenses for content on their sites
- Preventing the availability of unauthorized content
Other provisions include setting up a user appeals process and preventing reuploads of previously notified content.
Does the Directive Impact All Providers?
The Directive specified that certain platforms were exempt from these obligations. First, non-profits in defined areas such as online encyclopedias and scientific repositories, like Wikipedia and Archive.org, are excluded. Second, small companies will not need to prevent unauthorized content but must still respond to takedown notices and pursue licensing. Courts will apply the principle of proportionality in assessing whether a service provider has complied with its obligations based on the type of service, size, audience, type of works, and availability of suitable and effective measures. Finally, platforms that are not providing access or now chose to block access to those who live in the EU will not have to conform to the directive.
Rightsholders’ Obligations
Rightsholders also have obligations. For example, they must provide relevant and necessary information to enable a platform to identify content that cannot be made available on their site. This is key. If this information is not provided directly or through a vendor such as Audible Magic, the platform’s only obligations are to respond to takedown notices.
We recommend you consult with appropriate legal counsel as you implement provisions to meet the Directive.
How to Move Forward
Audible Magic is here to help service providers with meeting the new legislation by offering services to:
Use our identification services for audio and video to help prevent hosting unauthorized copyrighted content
- Identify unauthorized or authorized copyrighted content.
- Implement stay-down measures for unauthorized copyrighted content.
- Track activity for reporting purposes.
Access and Manage Licenses
Audible Magic offers sub-licenses for music or, where possible, helps facilitate obtaining licenses directly from a rightsholder. In addition, we offer proven services to ingest and clear catalogs and perform royalty reporting and payments.
Learn More about the Copyright Directive
- Take our A17 Assessment Survey
- Read the EU Copyright Directive
- Learn more about the Copyright Directive by visiting our resource page
Music Industry Moves: Critical Content, Quality Control Join Forces for Urban Music Film and TV Projects - Variety
"Vydia has entered into an agreement with Audible Magic which will allow independent creators to access a catalog of new music for customers such as social networks, gaming, and fitness platforms. Vydia’s library includes work by Five Finger Death Punch, Russ, Akon and Kanye’s Sunday Service Choir and also acts as a white label service for 40 music labels."
Read the full article by Variety here.
Vydia Strikes Agreement with Audible Magic, Partnership Allows Independent Creators to Join World’s Most Extensive B2B Music Catalog
As part of Audible Magic’s ongoing mission to help platforms access music for their users, Audible Magic recently announced its partnership with the global music technology platform, Vydia. The partnership with Vydia allows Audible Magic to expand its catalog of new music to its customers such as social networks, gaming, and fitness platforms.
Vydia brings a library of top talent from independent artists from all over the world, including Five Finger Death Punch, Russ, Akon, and Kanye’s Sunday Service Choir. In addition, the platform offers a white label service, currently utilized by nearly 40 labels all over the world, with a list that continues to expand globally. With a vision to provide the infrastructure and tools to power the business of music, adding Audible Magic to Vydia’s ongoing list of distribution channels will further enable discovery and engagement opportunities for creators while maintaining the correct metadata and licensing.
Audible Magic provides platforms with a fully integrated solution for music management, including licensing, fulfillment, rights administration, and content identification. The company hosts the largest business-to-business rights-managed catalog with over 100 million tracks.
On the partnership, Vydia’s Head of Strategic Partnerships, Jenna Tirico Nilsen says "We're thrilled to be partnering with Audible Magic to help them achieve their aim of providing breakthrough music solutions around the world. We are delighted to be a part of their efforts to develop products that solve the demands of the ever-changing music and entertainment industry."
“We are excited to work with Vydia to provide new opportunities for their artists,” commented Vance Ikezoye, Chief Executive Officer of Audible Magic. “Access to great music is key for our customers as they build compelling user experiences to grow their audiences, whether it is for an exercise class, a social media post, or a gaming experience. We are happy to enable that to happen through our fulfillment and rights management services.”
About Vydia:
Vydia is an end-to-end music technology platform and services company that provides labels with the infrastructure and tools to power their business. With a full suite of services, Vydia offers video and audio supply chain, global distribution, analytics, rights management, payments, detailed revenue reporting, and white label services. Vydia is a partner of leading digital service providers such as Spotify, Apple, TikTok, Vevo, YouTube, and Facebook. Combining innovative technology with industry expertise, Vydia is distribution reimagined.
About Audible Magic:
For more than 20 years, Audible Magic has innovated solutions to identify content, provide fulfillment solutions, manage rights, and monetize media. Audible Magic’s Emmy-winning automatic content recognition (ACR) technology powers billions of monthly transactions. The Silicon Valley pioneer is the trusted intermediary between major platforms and rights holders (including labels, studios, distributors, publishers, and collectives). For more information, visit https://www.audiblemagic.com/.
Audible Magic Sponsors 22nd International Society for Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR) Conference
Los Gatos, Calif. — Nov. 5, 2021 — Audible Magic, the industry leader in automatic content recognition, proudly supports the continued research of music identification by sponsoring the International Society for Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR) Conference. This event is the world’s leading research forum on processing, searching, organizing, and accessing music-related data, and will be held online this year from November 8-12.
The ISMIR Conference provides academic and commercial research teams an opportunity to share the latest advancements in artificial intelligence and neural network solutions to identify music and retrieve related metadata. Recognizing the importance of the ISMIR organization, our research team has often presented at and participated in the conference and values interacting with the members. The ISMIR community stays at the leading edge of development, and Audible Magic is excited to support its efforts at this forum.
“As platforms such as social networks, fitness apps, and gaming platforms push the boundaries of how they use music, our research team continues to expand the capabilities of identification technology to meet their needs,” said Todd McGee, Vice President of Research and Development at Audible Magic. “The ISMIR conference is a great place to exchange ideas and new findings.”
As a leading player in the identification space with over 50 patents, Audible Magic continues to innovate. The company now offers platforms an integrated music management solution that includes media fulfillment, rights administration, and its Emmy award-winning identification services.
About Audible Magic
For more than 20 years, Audible Magic has innovated solutions to identify content, provide fulfillment solutions, manage rights, and monetize media. Audible Magic’s Emmy-winning automatic content recognition (ACR) technology powers billions of monthly transactions. The Silicon Valley pioneer is the trusted intermediary between major platforms and rightsholders (including labels, studios, distributors, publishers, and collectives). The company works with a wide range of platforms and rights holders, including Facebook, Twitch, SoundCloud, Dailymotion, ShareChat, Vimeo, NBC Universal, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, The Orchard, CDBaby, and DistroKid. For more information, visit https://www.audiblemagic.com/.