Business News Digital Labels & Publishers

Sony/ATV publishes its complete catalogue online

By | Published on Thursday 17 July 2014

Sony ATV

It’s all about DIY in the music business in 2014, we all know that, and having totally and utterly, or if you prefer completely and entirely, failed to get its Global Repertoire Database of the ground, it feels like the music publishing industry is saying “here you go, have our data and build your own fucking database”. Truth be told, your DIY database is probably going to be better than the GRD ever would have been anyway.

So yes, the world’s biggest music publisher Sony/ATV/EMI has announced that its entire songs catalogue can now be viewed via its website. And while you might have thought that any music rights firm keen for anyone and everyone to licence its songwriter’s works might have thought to do that ten years ago, there’s bragging rights for the Sony publisher here, because it’s beaten the Universal publishing company with its data splurge. Universal Music Publishing announced it would likewise plonk its database online last month, though will begin with its US repertoire before making its global data available.

Confirming his company’s big data venture, Sony/ATV boss man Marty Bandier told reporters yesterday: “As the world’s leading music publisher we want to ensure that existing users, prospective licensees and those with a need to access our extensive song list are provided with that capability. We are thrilled to announce today that the company is taking the next step and offering a greater level of transparency by enabling our global catalogue to be accessible upon request”.

Both Sony/ATV and Universal are making moves to share their catalogue data in more friendly ways following the news that the publishing sector’s Global Repertoire Database project, which involved the big collecting societies as well as the publishers themselves, had run aground. It’s also a response to calls from licensees and the political community for the music industry to make its licensing processes simpler, and probably the current review of the collective licensing system in the US by the Department Of Justice.

As much previously reported, the big publishers want to start licensing digital services directly, and arguably they need to be seen to be providing digital players better copyright ownership data if they are going to do that (even though, even if the publishers do start licensing digital directly, they’ll likely still use the collecting societies to administer royalty collection, initially at least).



READ MORE ABOUT: