SoundExchange Updates Client Portal to Provide Faster Payments and Transparency

New Feature Introduces Self-Service Management for Overlapping Claims

SoundExchange introduced a suite of new features to its online client portal, SoundExchange Direct (SXDirect), that provide music creators with increased control and transparency into their royalty accounts through greater self-service. The groundbreaking “Overlaps & Disputes” tool notifies rights owners when other parties make competing ownership claims, enabling them to resolve overlaps as they occur. The efficiencies provided in this tool will result in fewer royalties being held up by disputes and thus faster payments.

“We are committed to raising the bar for the industry by providing innovative solutions for music creators,” said Michael Huppe, CEO of SoundExchange. “Music creators deserve to be paid fairly and accurately, and these new capabilities ensure they receive their royalties faster, too.”

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To date, SoundExchange has distributed more than $6 billion in royalties to music creators, including distributing nearly $1 billion in 2018 alone.

“SoundExchange empowers rights owners and their representatives by focusing on transparency and efficiency,” said Paul Smelt, Co-Founder and Director of Global Master Rights. “These major updates will provide greater insight into catalog usage and significantly improve the overlaps and disputes process, distinguishing SoundExchange as one of the most user-friendly collection management organizations in the world.”

The recent update significantly expands the tools available to rights owners, enabling them to manage overlapping claims and upload new sound recordings directly into the SXDirect portal:

• Overlaps & Disputes: provides rights owners with instant notification when there are overlapping claims to a sound recording and provides them with the ability to maintain or relinquish claims using a dashboard in SXDirect.
• Submit Recordings: provides rights owners with a dashboard in SXDirect where they can add new sound recordings by providing the International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) and related metadata. These new sound recordings receive immediate validation so that they can be immediately accepted into SoundExchange’s Repertoire Database and therefore become available to claim and associate rights.

“By introducing this portal update, SoundExchange is once again demonstrating they are the vanguard on transparency in the music industry. Combining this with their powerful new self-service features, empowers sound recording copyright owners to submit ISRCs, make new claims, and resolve overlaps faster to maximize their royalty streams with a spirit of collaboration,” said Rob Gruschke, Vice President of Global Collective Rights at Beggars Group Media.

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Additional features were introduced that are available to all music creators who use the SXDirect portal:

• Associated Recordings: provides a display of all sound recordings currently associated with the music creator’s account and the claim percentage for each track.
• Search & Claim: provides a way to search SoundExchange’s complete database of sound recordings, which includes ISRCs provided by rights owners and tracks that have been reported to SoundExchange as played but have not yet been associated with an rights owner-provided ISRC.
• Upload History: provides music creators with a history of files that have been uploaded to SXDirect. These files include “Search & Claim” carts or rights owner-submitted sound recordings.

“The targeted use of automation gives music creators greater control of their accounts through self-service.  In this way we ensure that the business of music keeps up with the pace of their creativity,” said Jonathan Bender, Chief Operating Officer at SoundExchange.

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