With streaming royalty rates going down and the sync licensing space getting more crowded, artists are always looking for new and innovative ways to monetize their music. While at Rightsify we have gone into detail on how artists can monetize their music in stores or how in-store music is the most underrated revenue stream in the industry, in this article we explain some more on how our model of licensing works and how it is beneficial to artists.

– Easy To Use: As long as an artist or label controls or owns 100% of the rights to their music, they can upload their music and submit it to be included in our playlists. Instead of having to fill out spreadsheets and wait weeks for something to happen, in some cases if a song works well with a playlist, we can have it added and being monetized in stores in multiple countries within 24 hours.

– Usage: Every time a song is played from the Rightsify platform we collect and log that data to make sure that artists are accurately compensated when their music is played. For too long the music industry has gotten away with half-baked measures for monetizing music in public. With Rightsify, every play is accountable so when your music is played, you get paid.

– Global: With every artist and song that we include with our playlists, we do require that it is available for licensing throughout the world. While we understand for many artists this may not work if they are working with licensing agencies or other representatives for their music, this enables us to provide consistent music and playlists to customers in every country. 

– Monthly Payments: Yep, you heard that right. We don’t deal with annual, bi-annual or quarterly payments. As long as you have plays within the last month, you get paid and there are no so-called ‘minimum thresholds’ for payment.

– Analytics: In addition to the usage section above, we don’t only log the data when music is played, we segment it into first-class analytics and charts so you know exactly where your music is being used. A hotel in New York, a restaurant in London or a cafe in Sydney? Total revenue last month? Most popular song? All of that data is available to artists in their Rightsify dashboard. 

Want to apply to join Rightsify? Fill out the form here and let us know if you have any questions. 

A lot of artists and businesses that reach out to us often ask us how Rightsify is different from collection societies and PRO’s such as ASCAP, BMI, SoundExchange, PRS, PPL, APRA, GEMA or other collection societies. 

The main difference with how we work at Rightsify is we operate entirely via direct licensing. Instead of getting music via the traditional method of collection societies, we work directly with artists and the actual owners of music and enable them to monetize their music in businesses anywhere in the world. From hotels in the US to cafes in Australia and restaurants in India, Rightsify is unique in that we can help artists monetize their music on a global scale, all from one place.

Collection Societies:

Collection Societies, also known as PRO’s are national organizations that are set up to collect royalties. They are often founded and managed by a board of directors which are mostly comprised of music publishers, record labels or major artists and songwriters in that country.

As we have noted in an earlier article, collection societies have traditionally paid artists and rights holders for music played in businesses using outdated models based on factors such as airplay data. So if you are an artist who’s music is played in businesses all across the globe but your music isn’t played on the radio, you most likely aren’t earning anything from when your music is played in businesses. While collection societies often do represent a majority of commercially released music, they by no means have the rights to license or a mandate on all music. This is a common misconception as business owners are often under the impression that a license from a collection society is mandatory for them to play any music in their business. So while collection societies do represent a majority of commercially released music, artists that are not members of these societies (of which there are many) are free to license their music to businesses without any involvement from collection societies, which is where Rightsify and direct licensing come in. 

Rightsify:

At Rightsify, we’ve introduced an entirely digital way to operate for licensing music in businesses. From offering businesses an annual music license that can be purchased in just a few clicks to helping artists monetize their music in businesses all over the world. Every license we issue is done electronically and all of the usage is logged in our system, meaning that we are able to collect accurate data on which music is being played, thus our members get paid every time their music is played. 

In addition to providing an efficient system for businesses to license music, we’re also available globally, which helps both businesses and artists. All of the artists and rights holders we work with control 100% of the rights to their music which enables us to provide our service everywhere. We also pay our members every month, regardless of the country a license was issued in which greatly reduces traditional industry standards of rights holders waiting for quarterly or bi-annual reporting to come in from certain countries.

So to recap, the ways Rightsify is different are:

– Monthly payments. We pay our members every month instead of the traditional quarterly or bi-annual reporting.

– Available globally. We help rights holders monetize their music globally, not just one country.

– Transparent. We provide deep data and insight into every time a song is played, such as the country, business type and amount earned. 

Have any questions or looking to become a member? You can contact us or apply here. 

Whether you’re in a grocery store, a cafe, a hotel, or a clothing store, music is everywhere. But when hearing music in public rights holders may ask themselves, how is music placed in these stores, and how is it monetized?

As we went over in a previous article, the traditional way of doing things was by businesses paying their PRO/collection society an annual fee to play music in their business or they would retain the services of a Muzak-like background music provider who would then bundle in the licensing fees as part of their service. The trouble with both of these legacy systems though, is that the money that was paid for this type of usage wasn’t accurately distributed in terms of the music being played. This is both due to the lack of technology and the way the industry never progressed past a certain way of doing things.

Based on data from CISAC, the global association of collection societies, in 2014 they collected €2.35B from what is categorized as ‘live and background’, which a large portion of that would be background music in business, better known as In Store Music.

How It Works:

Usually for rights holders to get their music played in stores it is through several common ways that music is licensed and played in businesses which we go into detail on below

– Personal Use; Many businesses simply play music from their personal collection straight out of iTunes on their computer. While this is a simple way to get music played, a small business owner might not know who owns the rights to the music thus they might get stuck having to pay multiple collection societies just to play music on their computer. There is also no valid way for rights holders to get paid accurately. If the business pays the annual fees to their collection society this money will most likely end up being paid to the same acts you hear on the radio every day, regardless of whether their music was played or not. 

– Streaming Services (Apple Music, Spotify, etc): Many small businesses may opt-in for just playing playlists straight from their personal Spotify or Apple Music subscription. While this seems like an easy way to get music played in a business, this is actually illegal as Spotify in most countries is not licensed for commercial use. 

– Legacy Background Music Services: This is usually by pure luck, either you have a hit song that is so well known that it can’t be ignored or the curation team of a business music service discovers your music on the web and add it’s to their playlists. Most major brands and chains use background music service providers so they are unlikely to be playing music from their personal collection so having your music widely promoted across the web is a good way to get it discovered and placed onto services like this. Earning royalties from them is another thing entirely as the usage data goes through several intermediaries before it gets to the rights holders themselves so this is widely seen as good for promoting music but not so much in terms of being a reliable revenue source.

– Direct Licensing services: Like Rightsify, in recent years new companies have taken advantage of the massive inefficiencies in the music licensing and royalty collection marketplace by offering businesses a lower cost music service while paying rights holders timely and accurately.  At Rightsify we are big fans the direct licensing route as it offers a win-win for everyone involved. Artists and rights holders get a transparent and simple way to monetize their music, while businesses get a more economically realistic licensing solution for their business.

If you as an artist want to get your music played in stores, apply for Rightsify Direct today. 

As our readers know, we recently rolled out our In Store Music service for businesses to license and play music in their businesses, while on the rights holder side we also introduced Rightsify Direct, our licensing program that enables rights holders to monetize their music when it’s played in businesses.

As we pointed out in a recent article about how In Store Music is the most underrated revenue stream in the music industry, most artists and rights holders are aware of the concept of In Store Music, but a wide majority of artists are not monetizing their music from this medium or getting paid any royalties from it. 

The reason for this is mostly based on the historical way the music industry has been setup. While collection societies and PRO’s have been collecting licensing fees from businesses for roughly a century, until streaming became prevalent there has generally been no way to track the data of which music is being played in businesses, thus rights holders weren’t paid accurately based on what music was played.

With Rightsify Direct, we track all music usage data so we are able to account to rights holders accurately based on what music was played, when it was played, from which businesses, among other important metrics. 

Here are three reasons to get started on Monetizing your Music via In Store Music today.

– A new way to get paid

Simply put, most rights holders these days are depending on streaming, performance royalties or sync licensing for their revenue. Rightsify Direct gives you a way to expand your revenue stream in an increasingly growing market. 

– Simple

We make things easy for rights holders to join and get their music uploaded. After applying, we review your music and let you know if we have any questions. Once that’s done you can upload your tracks in just a few clicks. 

– Global

Instead of going the country-by-country way like most music services, we’ve set out to be global from day one. By doing this, we are able to offer a global service for our business customers while giving independent rights holders a platform to monetize their music in almost every country in the world without traditional territorial licensing restrictions.

Have any questions or want to start monetizing? Get in touch and apply today.