Published
Wed, Aug 23, 2017, 17:55
- The label will let its recordings be used without licensing, and Dubset will distribute royalties to rights holders.
Sony Music has partnered up with the rights clearance company Dubset.
They're the first major label to strike a deal with the startup, who claim to have more than 35,000 labels and publishers using their service. Dubset uses proprietary software to identify samples in a mix or remix, then distribute royalties to all of the appropriate rights holders. That means that certain songs or mixes, which were previously impossible to clear because they sample or feature copyrighted recordings, are now publishable on services—like Spotify and Apple Music—with whom Dubset also has deals in place.
"The average mix is 62 minutes long and has 22 different songs in it, and those 22 different songs are represented by over 100 different rights holders," Dubset CEO Stephen White told The Verge. With their software they can process a 60-minute DJ mix in 15 minutes, then begin distributing payments to the correct rights holders. It's a big step forward in terms of tackling "mixed content," which has thus far been an untapped revenue source for many labels and publishers.