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/.
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.
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/.
Moj owner ShareChat raises $502m at a valuation of $2.1bn - Music Ally
After signing up 50 million Moj users in its first month, ShareChat raised a $40m funding round; struck some music licensing deals; and tapped Audible Magic for copyright-detection technology, while also fielding rumours that western tech firms Google and Snap wanted to invest in the company.
Read the full article by Music Ally here.
Are EU Member States Making Progress with Article 17?
With the June 7th, 2021 deadline looming for EU Member States to implement the 2019 EU Copyright Directive, many wonder about the timing of individual country transpositions or if there will be delays. The transposition is a process whereby each member state passes legislation to give force to the directive in that country. Although Covid-19 slowed progress, all major EU countries are making headway in their transposition process and are expected to meet the June deadline. The one significant exception is the UK, no longer part of the EU because of Brexit. The government has said it will not be implementing the directive.
To ensure the benefit of the new safe harbor provisions, online content-sharing services that make copyright works, such as music, publicly available in user-generated content will need to understand how and when the law is transposed by each member state. For example, The Netherlands has completed the transposition of the law and has specified that it will go into effect as of June 7, 2021.
We are watching this process carefully since some countries have considered adopting additional or different implementation measures in their transpositions. This could cause service providers to have a requirement to adjust their plans for each country they stream content to.
To learn more about how Article 17 will impact your business, we have included more resources at the end of this summary.
The Netherlands
The Netherlands became the first EU member state to implement the directive on December 28th. Their implementation is mostly a literal transposition of the directive’s provisions, but it also includes a provision that allows the Ministry of Justice to provide further rules on the application of the Article 17 implementation.
Germany
On February 3rd, Germany’s government approved their latest proposal, which was revised in response to feedback from rightsholders and platforms. This draft states that without a corresponding license, platforms must block uploaded copyrighted content; however, short excerpts are presumed permitted by law and may not be blocked by automatic means. The law is scheduled to be debated in the legislature in March.
Austria
The Austrian Ministry of Justice completed the first proposal in December, which borrows elements from previous German proposals, including a direct remuneration right for creators, users’ ability to pre-flag uploads as legitimate, and a threshold that protects minor uses from automated blocking.
France
France passed an authorization law on November 18th, allowing them to implement provisions of the directive by administrative decree. This law specified that the decree implementing Article 17 must be issued 6 months from its passing, which would be April 18th. France's draft law proposes a literal adaptation of Article 17.
Finland
Finland’s proposal relies on the mandatory use of ACR (Automated Content Recognition) technology by platforms. Rightsholders would be required to review infringing uploads before issuing a blocking request, and users would be able to challenge blocks through an independent alternative dispute resolution mechanism.
Denmark
Denmark announced that it would implement Articles 15 and 17 during the parliamentary year and the rest of the directive after the summer. Like the Netherlands, the Denmark transposition is a literal adaptation of the EU Copyright Directive.
The UK Copyright and Creative Economy Centre, based at the University of Glasgow, maintains possibly the most comprehensive and up-to-date resource on national implementation at https://www.create.ac.uk/cdsm-implementation-resource-page/.
Check back for more updates on Article 17 in the coming months. The following resources will help you understand how Article 17 may impact your business.
- What is Article 17?
- Take our A17 assessment to see how Article 17 affects your business.
- Understand how small social networks are impacted by the copyright directive.
This blog is issued for informational purposes only and is not intended to be construed or used as general legal advice. Please contact the author(s) or your Audible Magic Corporation contact if you have questions regarding the currency of this information.
All information is accurate as of March 8, 2021
Sources
https://www.twobirds.com/en/in-focus/copyright-directive
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021-02/04/c_139719400.htm
Takwene Protects Artists’ Rights and Manages Their Catalog with Audible Magic’s RightsRx™ Plus
The award-winning MCN and distributor supports
creators from production to rights protection.
The company's name, Takwene, the Arabic word for “create,” reflects its commitment to providing comprehensive support for artists, often musicians, to produce and succeed online. The Middle Eastern focused multi-channel network (MCN) and distributor launched in 2011 just as the Arab Spring began. Undaunted by the crisis, the Takwene development team focused on building their music distribution platform. The investment paid off as they became the first and only YouTube Certified Partner in the region shortly thereafter.
Continued growth drives the search for Automated Content Recognition Solutions
In 2015, Takwene began registering their audio and video with Audible Magic to protect against unauthorized use on UGC hosting platforms. In 2019, Takwene became the biggest music library in the Middle East, hosting over 100,000 audio and video assets, including Bedouin and Libyan music. The company was also hosting a wide variety of content from creators in the United States and the European Union.
The growing company needed a solution to prevent uploads of unauthorized copyrighted material to their digital service providers (DSP) and to proactively manage ownership conflicts in their international catalog.
Accuracy, scalability, and an international registry were key
Because of the variety of music and the scope of their growing catalog, Takwene needed an automatic content recognition (ACR) vendor that had an extensive international music registry combined with a highly accurate and scalable service to minimize costly human intervention. Although they looked at several ACR providers, Audible Magic’s RightsRx Plus service provided the best match for their requirements.
Prevent the upload of unauthorized copyrighted content and identify catalog conflicts with RightsRx Plus
RightsRx Plus compares a submitted track against an extensive music registry and responds with applicable ownership information to help maintain a catalog free of unauthorized copyrighted content and conflicts. This quick scan helps distributors maintain their status with DSPs and resolve ownership issues with other rightsholders.
“We needed a service that would minimize human intervention, which can be costly. The solution had to be highly accurate and scalable for our expanding business, and accommodate the metadata complications when encoding a diverse catalog merging folkloric Bedouin, Oriental & Nubian Music.” said Ayman Konna, CEO of Takwene. “Audible Magic easily fit the requirements, and the team appreciated the quick integration. We were scanning tracks within a day.”
Challenge: Prevent copyrighted material from being uploaded to DSPs as well as manage conflicts in their catalog. Handle RTL and different metadata encoding.
Solution: Audible Magic’s RightsRx Plus
Key Requirements: Extensive international registry, minimal manual intervention, scalability, accuracy.
Frequently Asked Questions regarding Audible Magic’s Acquisition of MediaNet’s Business
On Monday, January 11th, 2021, Audible Magic and SOCAN announced that the companies had entered into an agreement to transfer SOCAN’s content fulfillment and rights administration business to Audible Magic.
Understandably, many content partners and customers of both MediaNet and Audible Magic have questions about what this means to their day-to-day interactions and services they may have been receiving from each company. We hope that the information below will provide some guidance, but always, feel free to reach out to us for further information. Both teams remain fully committed to our content partners and customers.
When does this acquisition go into effect?
The acquisition will be effective as of January 6, 2021.
Why is Audible Magic making this acquisition?
This acquisition enables Audible Magic to offer a unique one-stop-shop solution for digital service providers and UGC hosting platforms looking to manage copyrighted content. Audible Magic will be able to offer licensing, rights management, and royalty administration as well as industry-leading content identification services.
What are the benefits to Audible Magic customers?
Current Audible Magic customers will now have access to a full suite of content management services including licensing, rights management, royalty administration, and media fulfillment.
What are the benefits to MediaNet customers?
MediaNet customers will gain access to the gold standard in content identification services so important for accurate attribution of copyright, licensing, rights administration, and reporting.
Will there be any changes to the services provided to MediaNet or Audible Magic customers?
Both Audible Magic and the MediaNet teams remain committed to all existing customers with the same level of support.
Are there changes to my contacts at MediaNet or Audible Magic for business or technical issues?
We do not intend to change your primary business contacts currently. If you do have any questions, please contact us at helpdesk@audiblemagic.com
Will there be changes in how content partners should deliver content feeds?
There will be no immediate changes in how a content partner sends feeds to either Audible Magic or MediaNet. However, we will be looking into options to make the process easier for our content partners moving forward.
Will there be any changes to the processing of royalty payments or accounting reports?
The processes currently in place will continue as before the acquisition. As the two companies merge, we will be looking for opportunities to provide improved processes to benefit our content partners and customers. If you have any questions, please contact us at helpdesk@audiblemagic.com.
Are there changes planned to MediaNet customer billing and invoicing for services?
Yes, invoices will be issued with an Audible Magic logo starting in January. You will have access to your invoices and statements via an online portal. You will receive a link via email to set up your account within the portal, as well as a user guide for questions and assistance. Remittances should be made per the instructions on the invoice.
EMS and Audible Magic Tackle Industry-Wide Issue of Verifying Music Rights Ownership
Audible Magic’s RightsRx enables EMS to proactively protect artists from fraudulent ownership claims
Los Gatos, Calif. – Nov. 17, 2020 – The Encoding Management Service (EMS), a technology service provider for digital music, audiobooks and eBooks, announced it has partnered with Audible Magic, the gold standard for content identification and leading provider of rights management and automatic content recognition (ACR) solutions. EMS is using Audible Magic’s RightsRx™ to prevent an industry-wide concern of fraudulent ownership claims by bad actors, attempting to steal revenues from the legitimate artists and rightsholders.
“There’s no question that Audible Magic is the partner of choice to help strengthen our rights management procedures, given their industry standard trusted and proven technology,” said Chris Bornefeld-Ettmann, EMS managing director. “We’re thrilled at how easily and quickly we implemented RightsRx into our existing workflow.”
Audible Magic’s RightsRx enables EMS to resolve ownership conflict claims prior to upload by identifying fraudulent submissions, as well as catalog conflicts when artists submit through multiple distributors.
“EMS is a major industry player and their effort underlines the continued trend of distributors proactively managing their catalogs to prevent unauthorized music from entering the digital music ecosystem,” said Vance Ikezoye, president and chief executive officer at Audible Magic. “We’re the best solution in the industry to ensure distributors can keep their catalogs clean from unauthorized content.”
Every month, Audible Magic searches billions of files looking for copyright content registered by over 140,000 record labels and music publishers. Its comprehensive reference registry contains tens of millions of registered works representing music from over 150 territories, with hundreds of thousands of new tracks added each month. Search results operate on files as short as five seconds and typically complete in one second or less, with virtually zero false positives.
For additional information, visit https://www.audiblemagic.com/rightsrx/.
About Audible Magic
For more than 20 years, Audible Magic has innovated solutions to identify content, manage rights, and monetize media. Audible Magic’s Emmy-winning automatic content recognition (ACR) technology powers billions of transactions monthly. The Silicon Valley pioneer is the trusted intermediary among rightsholders (including labels, studios, distributors, publishers, and collectives) and major platforms. For more information, visit https://www.audiblemagic.com/.
About EMS
The Encoding Management Service - EMS GmbH is a technology service provider for the digital entertainment industry. For more than 10 years now, EMS’ logistical solutions for digital contents enable fast and secure ripping, encoding and delivery of audio, video and eBook data to online retailers, aggregators and other services worldwide. EMS is one of Spotify’s recommended Delivery Platforms and listed Encoding House with Apple. EMS’ clients’ roster includes renowned distributors such as GoodToGo, Indigo, mbassador, TBA, Tonpool Digital, wordandsound and ZEBRALUTION. EMS is a member of the ZEBRALUTION Group since July 2019.
Contact:
Adriana Saldaña
Sterling Communications
audiblemagic@sterlingpr.com
+1 408-395-5500
EMS connects with Audible Magic - MusikWoche
The Leverkusen-based digital service provider Encoding Management Service (EMS) will in the future rely on the collaboration with Audible Magic in matters of content recognition and rights management and will use the RightsRx solution from the Californian company.
Read the full article by MusikWoche here.
Innovative Music Licensing Frameworks Will Be Key To UGC-Powered Music Expansion - Forbes
“Traditionally many people look at UGC as a promotional tool used to generate demand for music, says Audible Magic founder and CEO Vance Ikezoye, who has more than 20 years of professional experience in the music industry. “But it’s really a new form of content with big potential for platforms and content owners…people go to TikTok, not for the music, but for the creativity and creation opportunity.”
Read the full article by Forbes here.