TORONTO – Bell Media, Music Canada and Re:Sound, today announced a new cross-platform reporting process which aligns terrestrial broadcast data with digital, ensuring all music industry stakeholders can track their assets with “efficiency, transparency, and accountability, while setting a new industry standard for data reporting.”
The automation of the existing music content distribution tool allows the industry to streamline sound recording data within the Canadian music ecosystem, with this new process spearheaded by Bell Media.
“The new system is part of an ongoing project to develop administrative efficiencies by Music Canada and Re:Sound. Through consolidating multiple data sets, maximizing the use of ISRC (International Standard Recording Codes), and other improvements, the project has so far resulted in faster payouts and 28% more revenue for major labels and members of CIMA (the Canadian Independent Music Association),” reads today’s press release.
Re:Sound is the Canadian not-for-profit music licensing company dedicated to obtaining fair compensation for artists and record companies for their performance rights and Music Canada is a non-profit trade organization that represents the major record companies in Canada: Sony Music Entertainment Canada, Universal Music Canada and Warner Music Canada.
Toronto's 104.5 CHUM FM undertook a pilot project in early 2017 and it worked so well the rest of Bell Media’s 106 radio stations are now tracking complete sound recording data including ISRC automatically on new tracks from major record and independent labels. “With the elimination of manual processes, the new reporting system has resulted in cleaner data, which significantly benefits all rights holders in the Canadian music industry including artists, background musicians, songwriters, and music publishers, through organizations (SOCAN, CMRRA, SODRAC, etc.) relying on broadcast data to get royalties to rights holders,” reads the release.
"I commend Bell Media, and specifically Randy Lennox, for showing remarkable leadership on this project," says Graham Henderson, president and CEO of Music Canada. "Thanks to this collaboration, achievements in data efficiency from projects completed by the major record companies and Re:Sound will now yield even greater results, generating savings throughout the royalty chain, while resulting in more dollars in the pockets of creators "
"As someone with love for Canada's music industry, I am thrilled by the results of this project," added Lennox, president of Bell Media, in the release. "When Music Canada's Graham Henderson approached us to help resolve what has been a longstanding issue within Canada's music industry, it was an easy decision to lend Bell Media's resources and expertise. The automation of the tracking process establishes international best practices that benefit creators while making the entire system considerably more efficient."
