ICE has distributed more than €1 billion to rights-holders in a consecutive 12-month period for the first time.
Representing over 330,000 rights-holders, ICE has processed trillions of online music uses from streaming services, and paid over €4.5 billion to rights-holders since March 2016.
It took just under three-and-a-half years to reach the first €1bn in distributions, just over two more years to pass the second billion and has been closing in on a single year since.
The rate of royalty distributions to music creators has increased with ICE serving more societies and publishers, as well as processing and licensing additional DSPs and territories.
Improvements to systems and processes have also benefited songwriters, with ICE’s multi-stage invoicing bringing in over €180 million more in royalties, paid to writers on an accurate musical works usage basis.
On the licensing side, it has developed self-serve licensing for start-ups (Licensr), and a DSP audit programme to maximise collections for songwriters.
Peter de Mönnink, CEO, ICE, said: “Distributing €1bn in 12 months to rights-holders is a major achievement, reflecting the hard work, expertise, and innovation of everyone at ICE in ensuring our customers can deliver to their members.
“Despite their crucial role, copyright and music publishing often do not receive the recognition they deserve. Music is the cornerstone of today's digital services, with customer experiences built around the value of music and the importance of songwriting.”
He added: “The increasing scale of the ICE Hub is paramount to offer the highest and most efficient distributions for songwriters and composers. It is ICE's belief that this scale will be evermore important to ensure fair and sustainable royalty flows for rights-holders in the online space. This is not only our mission, but also our passion.
“To support our ongoing efforts, and address the complexities of royalty management, ICE has a very strong focus on scalability facilitated by its ongoing platform development. Whilst this innovative undertaking presents significant challenges, we are pleased with the progress we have made. ICE is now moving step by step into deployment phases of this advanced platform. ICE is on a path of continuous innovation, to deliver more royalties, at less cost, with an even better service.”
Rachael Naylor, COO, said: “We are extremely proud to have delivered more royalties, faster and with optimised accuracy to our customers, which in turn allows increased onward distributions to their Songwriters and Composers, enabling them to continue creating.
“ICE are the touchpoint for a significant portion of distributions across a number of exploitation types in the industry, as well as online processing, and we recognise the vital importance of copyright excellence underpinning every service we offer now and in the future.”
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