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.
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.
Indiefy, an Indie Record Label & Distributor Platform, Supports Emerging Artists While Verifying Copyright Ownership
From its launch in 2016 in Guadalajara, Mexico as a music distribution service and label, Indiefy understood the importance of providing aspiring indie artists an excellent user experience while seamlessly uploading tracks free of copyright claims to digital service providers (DSPs). Striking the balance of servicing its subscribers and ensuring smooth operations, including copyright compliance, Indiefy not only built relationships with artists around the world but also maintained the platform’s status with DSPs.
Indiefy regards automatic content recognition technology as crucial to ensure the integrity of their supply chain and catalog, and to preserve their status as a trusted supplier to the leading music DSPs. Early on, Indiefy had chosen a vendor whose service was not as accurate as they needed and was forced to manually review any identified files from the vendor. They found the vendor’s service:
- Misidentified files as containing copyrighted music when they actually did not (aka false positives), falsely accusing an artist of misappropriation.
- Correctly identified files with copyrighted music but referencing the wrong metadata.
With a strong commitment to delivering reliable and affordable service, Indiefy wanted to avoid providing inaccurate data, falsely accusing an artist of copyright infringement and holding up his or her music from uploading to DSPs. The team knew the overhead of manually reviewing files could not be sustained and began looking for another automated content recognition solution (ACR).
RightsRx™– The Highest Accuracy for Any Budget
After reaching out to Audible Magic, the Indiefy team was pleasantly surprised at the various affordable service options for RightsRx, built using Audible Magic’s content identification technology – known for its accurate identification rates and virtually zero false positives. The development team also found it easy to install and use, speeding the time-to-market for deployment into production.
RightsRx compares tracks to music from more than 140,000 music labels from over 150 different territories in Audible Magic’s authoritative database and responds in seconds with a match or no match. If there is a match, it will display the conflicting rightsholder.
“The accuracy and the lack of human intervention not only builds our reputation for professionalism with indie artists, but also with DSPs that expect a clean catalog from Indiefy,” comments Gilberto Avalos, Founder and CEO at Indiefy. “The fire and forget aspect of RightsRx allows the team at Indiefy to focus on developing our platform and building artists’ careers.”
Challenge: Ensuring a clean supply chain of new artist tracks free of copyrighted content conflicts.
Solution: Scanning audio tracks before uploading to DSPs with RightsRx.
Key Requirements: Accuracy, scalability, and ease of use.
Audible Magic Review: An Article on Live Streaming and the New European Copyright Directive
Whether you agree with the new European Copyright Directive or not, an objective of the Directive was to ‘clarify’ the definition and obligations of online content sharing service providers (“OCSSP”). One area which remains unclear, however, is the application of the Directive to ‘live streaming’ platforms – which in these times are becoming an increasingly significant category of media.
A new article by one of Europe’s leading copyright law experts, Dr. Eleonora Rosatii, examines live streaming services in the context of existing EU copyright law and the new 2019 EU Directive on Copyright.
Conclusion: Live Streaming Platforms Classified as OCSSPs
Dr. Rosati’s analysis concludes that live streaming platforms fall within the definition of an ‘online content sharing service provider’ under the new 2019 EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (The Copyright Directive). These platforms can, therefore, be held directly liable for copyright infringement by making infringing streams, initiated by their users, available to the public.
In this respect, the Copyright Directive does not materially alter their position as it stood under EU law prior to the Directive being passed. What is different, is Article 17 provides live streaming platforms protection from liability, if they make best efforts to get licenses and take measures according to high industry standards to ensure the non-availability of infringing content via their platform.
Summary of Analysis
Given the huge spike in live streams of DJ sets during the COVID-19 pandemic, this timely article looks at live-streamed performances and notes that, if the performance had taken place in a public venue, the venue would have been required to obtain copyright licenses.
Dr. Rosati examines the situation of a hypothetical Platform X: DJs upload live streams of their performances which include the playing of copyright sound recordings. Platform X stores the material only for so long as necessary to enable the uploads to be transcoded and then streamed to an audience of frustrated would-be club-goers. Storage is therefore ephemeral, and no copies of the DJ sets are stored for future on-demand streams or downloads. The live streams are indexed by the platform, enabling would-be listeners to search and find streams or DJs they like.
The author explores the platform’s direct liability under the principles of existing EU law for making user-generated content available to the public. These principles were developed in successive cases decided by The Court of Justice of the European Union, culminating in the express finding of direct liability in the 2017 decision in Ziggo (the Pirate Bay case)(C-610/15). The precise nature and scope of this liability remains uncertain as evidenced by the number of CJEU referrals currently pending in this area (YouTube, C-682/18; Elsevier (C-683/18); Stichting Brein (C-442/19); and Puls 4 TV (C-500/19)).
Dr. Rosati says that it is not surprising that the Copyright Directive is characterized (in Recital 64) as a ‘clarification’ of existing law. She points out that where Article 17 goes beyond the pre-2019 EU copyright regime, it is not in the direct liability of OCSSPs for acts of communication or making available to the public, but in the regime that it establishes around that potential liability.
The article also examines whether a live streaming service can be considered an Online Content-Sharing Service Provider (OCSSP). Article 2(6) of The Copyright Directive defines an OCSSP as an online service, one of whose main purposes is “to store and give the public access” to large amounts of copyright content which it “organizes and promotes for profit-making purposes.” The issue is whether the ephemeral nature of the storage disqualifies the live streaming platform from being classified as an OCSSP. Rosati examines this question in-depth in the context of the Copyright Directive and the E-Commerce Directive and concludes:
“Live streaming providers that behave like Streaming Platform X in the example above are to be regarded as OCSSPs, even if the storage made of user-uploaded content is limited in time. What is relevant for the qualification of a provider as an OCSSP in principle is the purpose that it pursues (to store and give the public access to a large amount of protected subject matter uploaded by users) and, with that, the role that it performs (organization and promotion of such subject matter for profit-making purposes), not the duration (e.g., permanent or temporary storage of protected content) of the activity at hand.”
Dr Rosati concludes that the activities of the live streaming platforms are therefore governed by Article 17(4) of the Copyright Directive, and because of that, OCSSPs can protect themselves from liability, if they make efforts to obtain licenses for the content, and in the absence of any license, use best efforts, according to high industry standards, to prevent the availability of unlicensed content contained in the live streams. In conclusion, if live streaming platforms are classified as OCSSPs, the new Copyright Directive provides them a new ‘safe-harbour’ from liability provided they meet their other Article 17 obligations.
Commentary: Platforms Benefit from Safe Harbour as 2019 Copyright Directive OCSSP
The relevance of this article to live streaming platforms is clear and the implications are significant. Any live streaming service that gives public access to large amounts of copyright content uploaded by users, which it organizes and promotes for profit-making purposes, can be held directly liable for copyright infringement. This applies to both pre- and post- 2019 EU Copyright Directive regimes.
Prior to the Directive, even if a live streaming platform tried to get licenses and employed content recognition technologies to prevent unlicensed uploads, the platform would be liable for any infringing content that managed to get uploaded to its platform.
The new Copyright Directive changes that: The platform can now protect itself from direct liability by taking the steps prescribed in Article 17(4). These include using best efforts, according to high industry standards, to ensure the non-availability of content, in respect of which the copyright owner has provided relevant and necessary information.
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[i] Associate Professor in Intellectual Property (IP) Law at Stockholm University; Guest Professor at CEIPI-Université de Strasbourg; Research Associate and Lecturer at EDHEC Business School; Associate at the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law at the University of Cambridge; Of Counsel at Bird & Bird; and Editor of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (Oxford University Press, peer-reviewed). Dr. Rosati holds law degrees from the University of Florence, an LLM from the University of Cambridge, and PhD from the European University Institute.
Audible Magic Corporation Review 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.
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 rights holders (including labels, studios, distributors, publishers, and collectives) and major platforms.
Audible Magic is a service mark and trade name of Audible Magic Corporation ©2020 Audible Magic Corporation. All rights reserved.
Plan Now
It is important to start planning now on how to meet the requirements and understand the impact of the Directive on your business.
Below are some resources to help you understand the Directive and how it may impact your business.
- Take our A17 Assessment Survey for platforms to assess if the Directive affects your company and then assess your readiness to comply
- Understand how small social networks will be impacted
- Read the full text of the Directive
- And more is available on our Article 17 page as well as in our blog section
Audible Magic Continues to Support Customers During the COVID-19 Outbreak
The health and safety of our community, customers, partners, and employees are our top priority. As of Monday, March 16th, all of our employees in both the Los Gatos and London offices are working remotely — we have suspended all non-essential work-related travel. We are continuing to monitor recommendations from the CDC and the World Health Organization to remain up-to-date on the latest information and safety protocols.
We anticipate no disruption to our service during this time. All our teams will remain fully operational and will continue to provide the highest quality service and support to our customers and partners.
As always, you can contact Audible Magic support by emailing helpdesk@audiblemagic.com or submitting a ticket on our support page: https://support.audiblemagic.com/hc/en-us.
Stay safe, and together we will get through this challenging time.
Vance
President and CEO
Audible Magic
Audible Magic Enables Monetization of UGC for Social Networks
New Platform Simplifies Music Licensing to Grow Market
Los Gatos, Calif. (Sept. 10, 2019) – Audible Magic, the leading provider of content identification solutions, announced its UGC Music Rights Platform (UMRP), which simplifies the licensing and administration of music rights by social media networks that enable uploading of audiovisual content. Audible Magic’s UMRP encourages greater use of licensed music, which substantially improves user experiences while creating new revenue streams for both social networks and music industry players.
Licensing music for use in user-generated content (UGC) requires substantial investments in obtaining and managing licenses, which discourages many businesses from undertaking the effort. Audible Magic’s UMRP offers a turnkey solution for social networks, as it identifies copyrighted music, clears that music based on directly negotiated licenses, and provides the back-office services for royalty payment and reporting to licensors.
Audible Magic UMRP consists of a set of new plug-and-play services for both social networks and rightsholders. For record labels and music publishers, UMRP provides an enhanced license registration process combined with a content management system and usage reporting dashboard. These services provide the mechanisms to dramatically lower the cost of licensing and managing rights across multiple social networks.
“This new platform leverages our strength in content identification technology, coupled with the trust we’ve built with rights holders,” said Vance Ikezoye, president and chief executive officer of Audible Magic. “We have spent the past three years working closely with the music industry to build a system that simplifies the use of music in UGC. This has been a long-standing issue for our customers, and we are excited to offer a fully featured solution to address it.”
The various services that make up the UMRP begin to roll out in Q4 of this year and into Q1 of 2020.
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.
Contact
Adriana Saldaña
Sterling Communications
audiblemagic@sterlingpr.com
+1 408-395-5500
Audible Magic and Stadeum Sports Partner to Fight Piracy in Romania
Partnership Protects Liga Profesionista de Fotbal Club Content Across Social Media Networks
July 23, 2019 (LOS GATOS, Calif.) – Audible Magic, the industry standard for content identification linked to digital rights, and Stadeum Sports, who is digitally transforming football in Romania, announced a partnership to fight piracy impacting sports leagues in Romania. Using Audible Magic’s technology, Stadeum works on social media platforms to remove infringing pages that often host unauthorized live or pre-recorded video content.
Stadeum monitors social media networks on behalf of Romania’s professional football league Liga Profesionista de Fotbal (LPF) and its 14 member clubs. The company works diligently with social media platforms to take down fake pages, and unauthorized video clips and live streams of matches. Additionally, through their partnership with Audible Magic, Stadeum protects against unauthorized sharing and enables authorized club content to be legitimately shared on their official social media networks.
“I am very thankful to Audible Magic and Stadeum Sports for their engagement and support in this important LPF initiative,” said Robert Pongracz vice president of LPF. “We consider the fight against piracy an essential objective to increase the value of our IP in the future. This step will provide us great opportunities to further develop the game in the digital world and to deliver huge benefits for the football community and our member clubs.”
Audible Magic’s Emmy Award™ winning technology fingerprints registered content that has been provided to Stadeum by the football clubs. Once the authorized content has been registered it is assigned a unique fingerprint, which can be identified across the social platforms that Audible Magic has relationships with. This process ensures the legitimate use of audio and video content, including live streams of media in real-time, for the rightful owner.
“As the pioneer of automated content recognition, we view our foray into sporting events as a natural extension for the use of our technology,” said Vance Ikezoye, president and chief executive officer at Audible Magic. “The process of registering content to prevent unauthorized use of audio and video, both pre-recorded and live events, will allow the LPF football clubs to re-direct energy to invest in the production of content that can be made available to fans around the world through the clubs' official social media pages.”
About Stadeum
Digital technology is unlocking unprecedented opportunities in the sports industry, offering the potential to draw fans closer through innovative and customized experiences. To capitalize on this opportunity, however, digital will need to be embedded in every aspect of the business, transforming people, process, and technology. Stadeum Sports helps teams, leagues, and players navigate this digital transformation that is rapidly unlocking new opportunities for growth.
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.
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EU in Final Stages of Clarifying Copyright Law for User Generated Content Platforms
The European Union is nearing finalization of significant changes to the copyright law, which will increase the legal obligations of websites and apps that allow sharing of user-uploaded content, often referred to as UGC or user-generated content. While it is still progressing through the legislative process, it seems likely some form of this legislation will become law. The three current versions approved by separate arms of the EU government share a few common provisions.
If it becomes law, it will likely apply to websites and app platforms that meet four basic conditions:
First, the platform allows the storing and distribution of UGC that may include copyright content, even if use is just incidental. If users can upload content with embedded clips of music or video as part of their content, this provision applies.
Second, the platform promotes or optimizes content for commercial purposes. Commercial purposes would include the generation of income through advertising, subscriptions, app and in-app purchases, and other creative income producing schemes, or attracting users to the service to increase the capital value of the platform.
Third, the platform is located in the EU or if it is located outside of the EU, is it accessible by users from any of the 28 countries currently in the EU. That means if the platform is based in the US but allows users in the EU to access it, this law applies.
Fourth, the platform is above a certain size, currently proposed to be more than 50 employees or annual revenues in excess of €10 million.
Some exceptions to the type of platforms covered are expected. For example, cloud storage services that are for individual use. Other examples include not-for-profit encyclopedia services (such as Wikipedia), open source software platforms (such as GitHub) and online markets whose main activity is selling of physical goods (such as eBay).
If a platform falls under these qualifying conditions of the directive, then what? The company will be required to obtain licenses from copyright owners or must take preventive measures to ensure that copyright works are not available through their service. Since there are inconsistencies between the three versions, it’s not yet clear what will qualify as a preventive requirement. However, it is expected that copyright owners will be obligated to specify what content they want protected.
So where do things go from here?
A trilogue process is currently underway by the EU to reconcile the three different approved versions. A compromise version is expected to be finalized before the end of 2018 and approved in the first quarter of 2019. Once approved, there is a two-year period before it becomes law in every EU member state.
Audible Magic Honored With an Emmy® Award for Content Identification Technology
Audible Magic Honored with an Emmy® Award for the Company's Content Identification Technology
Los Gatos, CA (August 30, 2017) — Audible Magic has been recognized as one of a select few to be honored with the Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering in 2017 by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS). The internationally-renowned Emmy® Award, granted by NATAS and chosen each year by dozens of industry experts and peers, recognizes excellence and creativity; and represents the highest achievement in the television industry.
Audible Magic was recognized by the NATAS for the company's more than 18 years of pioneering work in the development and use of content identification technologies to protect content value and copyright. The company's content recognition solutions, which are based on its patented digital fingerprinting technology, quickly and cost-effectively detect authorized and unauthorized uses of live and pre-recorded television content shared by consumers on social media and live streaming platforms.
"The Academy is pleased to highlight Audible Magic's contributions to the television industry addressing the need to respect television media copyrights on the Internet," said Robert P. Seidel, Chairman of the Technology & Engineering Committee of the NATAS. "Audible Magic's technology has had a significant positive impact in protecting the value of television content."
"Recognition by the NATAS and to be honored with an Emmy® Award is not only testimony to the extraordinary contribution of our technology but in addition, the entire ecosystem we've created," said Vance Ikezoye, Founder and CEO, Audible Magic. "Audible Magic has over 18 years developed industry-advancing technologies, resulting in over 65 patents covering a broad range of inventions in content identification."
This year’s recipients will be honored at the 69th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards that will take place in partnership with the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Show/conference on Sunday, April 8, 2018 in Las Vegas, NV.
About Audible Magic
Audible Magic provides technologies that make media devices, apps and networks content aware. The company is the trusted leader in digital fingerprinting techniques that recognize audio and video content in all forms across radio and television broadcasts, Internet streams, cable and satellite transmissions, stored digital files, and on consumer devices such as smart TVs, set-top boxes, smart phones, tablets, and other appliances. Since its founding in 1999, the company has been awarded more than 65 patents. Currently Audible Magic has worked with more than 200 customers and thousands of content partners in technology, entertainment and media industries.
About The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) is a service organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, educational and technical achievements within the television industry. It recognizes excellence in television with the coveted Emmy® Award for News & Documentary, Sports, Daytime Entertainment, Daytime Creative Arts & Entertainment, Public & Community Service, and Technology & Engineering. NATAS membership consists of over 15,000 broadcast and media professionals represented in 19 regional chapters across the country. Beyond awards, NATAS has extensive educational programs including Regional Student Television and its Student Award for Excellence for outstanding journalistic work by high school students, as well as scholarships, publications, and major activities for both industry professionals and the viewing public. For more information, please visit the website at www.emmyonline.tvw.emmyonline.tv
Audible Magic, SportsData Announce Live Broadcast-Synchronized Sports Information Service for Broadcasters, App Developers
LOS GATOS, Calif.--Audible Magic, the market leader in automatic content recognition (ACR) solutions, today announced it is bundling its TV content identification and synchronization technology with information services from SportsData, the fastest-growing sports data company in the United States. Available today, these bundled services provide broadcasters and app developers the ability to present play-by-play sports information as events are watched on television.
Audible Magic will demonstrate this synchronized-information solution April 7-10 at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, booth SU10112.
Many broadcasters and app developers already use Audible Magic’s ACR technology to recognize TV content playing on or near a smart device such as a phone, tablet or set-top box. Once a TV show’s audio content is identified, the ACR function also allows apps to present information content synchronized with the events of the program. With the Audible Magic-SportsData Synchronization Bundle, play-by-play statistics and other information can be presented as a game unfolds.
The information synchronization works whether the game is being watched live or viewed from a delayed playback source, such as a DVR or video stream. The bundle can enhance viewing of a wide range of televised sports, including professional and college football, basketball, baseball, hockey, golf, auto racing, horse racing, tennis, and soccer.
In Audible Magic’s demonstration at NAB, a tablet app “listens” over its microphone to a basketball game playing on a nearby TV. The app initially recognizes which game is being watched. Then, as action unfolds, the app displays information about the players and the plays they just executed. The app also displays graphics pinpointing the location of the play just made.
“We anticipate sports broadcasters and app developers applying a great deal of creativity using this bundled service,” said Curt Dowdy, Audible Magic’s vice president of marketing. “With this kind of solution running on mobile apps, set-top boxes and smart TVs, very soon viewers will experience entirely new and compelling ways to interact with their favorite sports and players’ stats.”
“We are thrilled to partner with a leading technology provider like Audible Magic,” said Rob Phythian, CEO of SportsData. “This synchronization service will help companies deliver innovative first and second screen products to meet the real-time information needs of today’s highly engaged sports fans.”
The SportsData Synchronization Service extends Audible Magic’s already robust set of media content identification and information databases. The company also provides hosted content identification and synchronization for live and archived TV shows, live and archived TV advertising, motion pictures and music tracks.
About Audible Magic Audible Magic provides technologies that make media devices, apps and networks content aware. The company is the trusted leader in digital fingerprinting techniques that recognize audio and video content in all forms across radio and television broadcasts, Internet streams, cable and satellite transmissions, and stored digital files, and on consumer devices such as smart TVs, set-top boxes, smart phones, tablets, and other appliances. Since its founding in 1999, the company has been awarded more than 25 patents in the U.S. and in Europe. Currently Audible Magic has more than 200 customers and partners in technology, entertainment and media, including CBS, CBC, Dailymotion, Discovery, Disney, Ensequence, EMI, Facebook, Fox, Intel, Metacafe, NBCUniversal, Sony, Soundcloud, Univision, Universal Music, Verizon, Viacom, and Warner Music.
About SportsData Founded in 2010, SportsData is the fastest-growing sports data provider in the U.S. With a veteran technology team and over 100 data entry analysts, SportsData captures live play-by-play, scoring, and statistical data, and delivers that information in real-time to a wide range of companies in the media, technology, and sports industries for use in web, mobile, and second screen applications. As a subsidiary of Sportradar, the leading, worldwide premium partner for the sports betting and media industry, SportsData provides sports coverage for 40+ sports, 800+ leagues, and 200,000+ annual events.
Contacts
Audible Magic
Jill Pescosolido, 408-399-6405 x225
jill@audiblemagic.com
www.audiblemagic.com
