Happy birthday, SoundExchange. The US royalties-collecting firm is 20 years old, and it’s celebrating with a big milestone for its distributions to artists and rightsholders.
The company says it has reached $10bn of cumulative digital streaming royalties.
“Over the past 20 years, we have grown into a global music tech organisation distributing around $1 billion annually to a creator community of more than 650,000,” said president and CEO Michael Huppe in a statement.
The $10bn figure follows SoundExchange’s last milestone: $7bn of distributions reached in April 2020.
In his appearance at the NY:LON Connect conference earlier this year, Huppe hailed his company’s work in speeding up payouts.
“A song that is streamed today, you may not get that money for 18 months or longer. There’s no excuse for that. 90% of our payments are out in 45 days,” he said, citing recent partnerships with mobile payment apps like Cash App.
“We need to meet the creator where they are – and they are on their phones. Many don’t even have checking accounts any more!”
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