2016: the year databases of publishing rights finally made the headlines!
Spotify continues to put its plans together to create a publishing administration system to solve its mechanicals headache in the US, but YouTube already has one of the biggest stashes of data on who owns what composition.
The video service is continuing to flesh that out, judging by its latest deal with Downtown Music Publishing.
They already have a licensing deal in place, but it’s now expanding to cover public performance royalties directly, rather than routing those through PROs.
“Certain methods of royalty collection have been in place for over one hundred years and may need to be reconsidered,” said Downtown’s Andrew Sparkler in a statement.
And as for databases, here’s YouTube’s Anjali Southward: “Downtown‘s ability to provide YouTube with up-to-date accurate repertoire ownership information is a key component of our partnership.”
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Tools: Kaiber
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