Rights Management in the 21st Century

Creative works have been around for centuries, arguably millennia. Except for some pioneering countries, the modern recognition and management of creators’ rights is only 100 years old. It is less than a century ago in 1926 with the founding of CISAC (the world federation of organizations representing the rights of Creators in all genres and of music publishers (www.cisac.org)), that rights holders and their collectives truly recognized that the international circulation of creative works required a global framework that would enable all rights managers to work together across borders and oceans, with the purpose of accurately paying rightsholders for their creative works.

A Pioneering Framework

Since 1926, loose cooperation between locally sovereign entities (commonly referred to as Collective Management Organizations or CMOs) has been the norm. They were largely sufficient to successfully represent the interests of rightsholders. There were very few multinational broadcasters, global touring was rare and relatively small, the Internet was unheard of, and rightsholders were very fragmented. There were no truly global music superstars such as the ones known today. No famous producers were working in the background and, obviously, no “major” publishers or investment funds acquiring music catalogues for hundreds of millions of dollars. 

For decades, the system had been working well, at least in the biggest markets. There was no significant pressure to change the fundamentals of rights management, but as the new millennium approached, everything began to change, and the pace of that change has been constantly accelerating.  

Urgent Upgrades Needed for New Systems that Support All Business Models

In a world that seems to lack words to describe the more than massive exponential growth of music performances, entities managing the creative rights, tracking the use of music, collecting royalties, and able to send money to the right people rapidly and efficiently are more relevant and necessary than ever before. 

CMOs, music funds, publishers, and record companies need real global coverage to keep up with the spread of music consumption for the rightsholders. With a few exceptions, focusing on a small number of key markets simply doesn’t cut it anymore. 

Rightsholders and rights managers are transforming themselves to leverage available technology and data assets to keep up with the new paradigm. However, entities that rely heavily on processing and managing copyright information, particularly in the field of music, largely remain plagued with outdated legacy systems that struggle to evolve for the digital world. 

The shift to digital music has created exponential growth in revenue-generating music use (think Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, TikTok, Fortnite, etc.). In a global music market that continues to grow, too many songwriters, performers, music publishers, and record companies continue to face declining or lower than expected revenue for the use of their creations, generating an urgent market demand for lower cost yet highly efficient technology services and solutions.

Flexible, state of the art, end-to-end solutions that efficiently support the management of ever-increasing volumes of music usage and copyright data to pay stakeholders in an accurate, speedy, transparent, and cost-effective manner are rare. 

The key music industry players seeking such solutions include CMOs, music publishers, record labels, and other copyright administrators who need to cost-effectively pay the music creators they represent. 

Copyright management and administration also live outside the music space. In an expanding digital entertainment world, data grows exponentially in other industries where copyright management is also critical to ensure stakeholders are correctly paid for the consumption of their works.

As such, there is a growing need for modern copyright management solutions in audio visual, literary, visual arts, spoken word, and of course, music assets to serve these entities. 

QRS Montage, A Flexible and Comprehensive Solution

Montage provides customers with an end-to-end integrated suite of tools, from the ingestion and management of copyright data through to accurate royalty payments to rightsholders, including self-serve portals for the management and administration of verticals in all areas of copyright consumption. Montage can handle customers’ revenue streams generated anywhere in the world, for any use such as digital (e.g., music streaming, user generated or uploaded content platforms like YouTube or TikTok, social media, games), in addition to traditional media uses such as radio, television, and live performances.

Montage optimizes business processes in a streamlined, integrated, and automated way, allowing customers to focus on developing their business and growing their revenues rather than reinventing costly IT wheels. The ultimate result: more money accurately and transparently going into the pockets of deserving creators and rightsholders, as quickly as possible.

For more information about Montage, visit www.qwantumrights.com/montage