Family In Music made a splash with its announcement last month about plans to help protect the revenue and rights of songwriters. Now it has unveiled a set of digital tools for music creators.
Alongside Family In Music’s founder and executive chairman, Juka Hynynen, the Finnish start-up has recruited some familiar names: Kevin Bacon and Tim Delaney (pictured, L-R).
Family In Music has now unveiled a new set of digital tools to aid songwriters, with a particular focus on the DIY creator. The DIY creator economy is the fastest growing in the global music industry, according to MIDiA Research.
Research from the Ivors Academy has revealed the scale of royalties that songwriters may be missing out on due to incorrect or missing data.
The new set of digital tools will launch in the spring. They include a song title checker (to avoid duplication), airplay revenue monitoring for songwriters, and blockchain-based music rights security. See below for full details.
Kevin Bacon, founder of the original AWAL that was sold to Kobalt (and now Sony Music), is chief innovation officer. Tim Delaney, formerly a key member of U2’s management team, is managing director. Over the last 15 years, Delaney - also a label veteran of Island, Mercury, RCA, Arista and J Records in the US, UK, Australia and Asia - has been involved with a variety of music tech start-ups.
Kevin Bacon said “As a songwriter you want to focus on the creative at all times which is how great songs come to be. Our view is that technology has long been part of making music and now we want to harness it to create modern tools for the modern songwriter to enhance their creative and commercial journey.”
We want to harness technology to create modern tools for the modern songwriter to enhance their creative and commercial journey
Kevin Bacon
Tim Delaney said: “There are vast numbers of fantastically creative and talented songwriters who are just not part of the traditional music industry model for a variety of reasons. Family In Music wants to empower and support them so they can grow creatively and give them our tools to guide them and help them prosper.”
Juka Hynynen, founder of Family in Music, added: “I started my music career as a songwriter and these tools are close to my heart. Securing the rights and proof of creation is the basis for everything. Finding the best song title is always an important part of the process and knowing what cover versions are out there is invaluable too. We are very excited to launch the toolkit for the amazing songwriting community.”
The digital tools from Family In Music are detailed below.
Song Title Checker
A tool to check whether a song title idea has already been used, or if there are titles that are very similar, so the songwriter can ensure their title stands out on streaming services.
Airplay Revenue
This monitors the radio play of radio stations across the UK and compares it to the tariffs that the royalty collection agencies have put in place. It shows the exact amount of money paid to the songwriter by the radio station for that song. For a writer who is not a member of a performance rights organisation (PRO), Airplay Revenue gives them all the facts about what radio play revenue they are missing out on. For an established writer, it delivers revenue prediction for their cash flow, and allows them to confirm they have received correct payments.
Rights Security
Family in Music recently unveiled MgNTa, a new online music industry identifier to help protect the revenue of songwriters. Because proof of creation is always a major issue for songwriters and the source of many disputes, the MgNTa NFT blockchain-based technology also provides proof of creation security. Audio, lyrics and data are captured and stored via blockchain along with a Timestamp and Audio fingerprint that provides categoric proof of creation and rights for the songwriter.
Cover Song Finder
Songwriters often find it difficult to track any cover versions that appear on streaming services meaning the songwriter will never get paid. There is no enforceable legal requirement to match a cover version to the original recording, so using audio fingerprint technology Cover Song Finder searches over 100m recordings and creates a report of all likely cover versions along with the recording identifier (ISRC code). This report can be submitted to the artist’s collection society, who will update their databases and claim the proper amounts from then on.
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