Audiam

Where's My Mechanicals? The Ultimate Explainer

You may have heard about controversies over unpaid mechanical royalties on the interactive streaming service Spotify. For us, the bottom line is that songwriters must be properly paid when their music is played on any service. In this post, we’ll examine the reasons this isn’t happening across the board.

First, it might be helpful to understand a bit more about what a mechanical royalty is, how it is licensed and whom it pays. read more

Jeff Price of Audiam on YouTube Music Key

Guest post by Jeff Price, founder, Audiam

Initially by accident, and perhaps later by design, YouTube became the number one destination site on the planet for music listening, discovery and sharing. It now has more music listeners than every other streaming music service combined.

With this accomplishment under its belt, it is now making a concerted effort to become an even bigger deal in digital music with the launch of its new YouTube Music Key service.

With this launch come several notable changes to YouTube:

Big Developments in Digital Music

This week saw three major developments in the digital music marketplace. First is the acquisition of music data and recommendation company the Echo Nest by streaming music giant Spotify. Second is the purchase of artist-focused commerce platform Topspin by new streaming entrant Beats Music. Last but not least is the announcement of a big cash influx for Audiam, a service collecting artist and rightsholder money on YouTube. Let’s take a look at what each of these announcements might mean for musicians and composers.

A New Service for Collecting Royalties From YouTube

This post co-authored by Policy Intern Cody Duncan

Last week, TuneCore co-founders Jeff Price and Peter Wells announced the launch of Audiam — a new service designed to help artists make money off their music when it’s part of user-uploaded content on YouTube. As you probably are aware, there’s a lot of music on YouTube, and not all of it is licensed from the rightsholder. YouTube already has a system called Content ID in place that allows rightsholders to block or allow a user-uploaded video that contains copyrighted material when it is posted. Owners can choose between 1) refusing the use 2) allowing it and “tracking” views, demographics, referrals and engagement or 3) monetizing the use through revenue-sharing from ads. Major and independent labels as well as publishers have been utilizing Content ID for at least a couple of years; Audiam aims to make the system more accessible to unaffiliated and self-published musicians and songwriters.

Where's My Mechanicals? The Ultimate Explainer

Jeff Price of Audiam on YouTube Music Key

Big Developments in Digital Music

A New Service for Collecting Royalties From YouTube

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