CD Baby has entered into a partnership with digital content identification, licensing, and monetisation platform Audible Magic. This will help CD Baby to increase content protection for artists and labels.
As part of the partnership, CD Baby will use Audible Magic’s RightsRx™ service to identify content rights conflicts prior to delivery to a Digital Service Provider (DSP). Thus ensuring that CD Baby remains a trusted distribution partner of digital platforms worldwide.
“Audible Magic is an essential element that enables us to play our role in the music business,”
said CD Baby VP of Marketing Kevin Breuner.
“Their powerful identification technology allows us to serve our artists quickly and fairly.”
The recent notable leaks of music from Rihanna and Frank Ocean have proven the need for more stringent upload identification, and Audible Magic will ensure that CD Baby is never caught in any controversial cases like these.
“We’re doing everything in our power to provide digital partners with data and assets that boost our artists. We want to create the best experience via these partnerships,”
said MJ Woodis, CD Baby’s Director of Digital Operations who leads a 19-person team that addresses this challenge.
“We work closely with DSPs, and it’s often more of a conversation, not just rules laid down. The heart of the matter is not to restrict as we get them music and data. We have to enable search and other discovery methods to help our artists. It’s a growing process.”
he added
How Audible Magic works?
When a user requests to upload files, RightsRx™ allows CD Baby to check Audible Magic’s comprehensive registry of over 30 million media assets.
RightsRx™ then indicates if the file is a duplicate of another audio track in the system. It also indicates if it is a potentially suspicious file.
CD Baby can proactively decline to upload the file in question, rather than reactively taking it down at a later time due to a potentially costly rights conflict.
In the vast majority of cases, however, files will upload seamlessly and be ready for distribution.
“CD Baby plays a vital role in the independent music community. We look forward to supporting their ongoing efforts to provide the highest quality of service to their artists. We aim to maintain strong relationships with the DSPs,”
said Vance Ikezoye, President and CEO at Audible Magic.
RightsRx™ is part of a bigger strategy at CD Baby to be the best partner possible to diverse music services. It aims to be a partner to an even more diverse community of artists.
This demands constant learning, extensive tech savvy, and real creativity.
As the industry attempts to crack down on various rights infringement issues, companies like Audible Magic are important to comply with DSP’s, whose regulations have to keep up with growing data volumes and label standards.
Downtown Music Holdings, the parent company of Downtown Music Publishing and Songtrust, has acquired AVL Digital Group and its group of businesses, including CD Baby, AdRev, DashGo, and Soundrop in March this year.