Blokur, Music Data Services, Exactuals and TuneRegistry have joined The MLC's DQI

By Emmanuel Legrand

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) has enlisted four music data companies to its Data Quality Initiative (DQI): Blokur, Exactuals, Music Data Services, and TuneRegistry.

  The MLC was mandated by the Music Modernisation Act (MMA) of 2018 with administering the new blanket compulsory license for the use of musical works by digital music services covering mechanical rights. It will officially launch in the US on January 1, 2021.

  Dae Bogan (pictured, below), Head of Third Party Partnerships at The MLC, said the four new participants in the DQI offer "different tiers of service, from high-cost enterprise platforms to economical new  software targeting self-administered songwriters and smaller publishers.”



  The MLC said the participation of the four companies in the DQI project "will make it much easier for their users and customers to participate in the DQI and check the accuracy of their musical works data in The MLC's current database." 

  The DQI provides a streamlined way for music publishers, administrators, self-administered songwriters, composers and lyricists, and collective management organisations outside the USA, "to compare their musical works data with The MLC’s data to ensure The MLC’s data is consistent with theirs."

Different approaches

  In addition, participants to the DQI will receive reports highlighting discrepancies between the data they submit for comparison and The MLC’s data. The MLC noted that each company part of the programme "will take a different approach to helping their clients and customers participate in the DQI." 

  Some are integrating new functionality into the data-related products, services and software platforms they already offer; others will work with their clients “one-on-one” to help them prepare and submit their comparison files and then review the results.

  The MLC will launch its online portal in January 2021, which will include a public database of copyright information on all musical works. The database will be constantly updated and will seek to match compositions to sound recordings. With this regard, The MLC has picked the Harry Fox Agency (HFA) to manage data matches. Existing clients of HFA have the option to flip their catalogues to The MLC's database, while non-HFA clients have the possibility to upload their data directly.  

Efficiently check data

 “Our team is committed to making the process of checking data as efficient and effective as possible for  all of our members,” says The MLC CEO Kris Ahrend. “Enabling innovative companies like these to make it easier for their users and customers to participate in our Data Quality Initiative helps The MLC achieve that important goal. We appreciate their willingness to help support the DQI.”  

  Here are the comments from representatives of the four companies:

  >  "Blokur’s global copyright database, which covers the majority of commercial music, combined with our unique matching technology, makes us ideally placed to help publishers get the best possible results out of the DQI and – crucially – to resolve any issues that are identified in the process painlessly," said Phil Barry, founder and CEO of Blokur.

  >  Exactuals, which uses AI technology to help match works and rights holders, said it will collaborate with The MLC "to help songwriters, publishers, and other rights-holders of every size submit the highest-quality metadata for their tracks to this important new organisation,” said ChrisMc Murtry, Head of Music Product at Exactuals. “Our RAI API uses machine learning to quickly and accurately bring catalogues up to date and prepare them for distribution on every DSP. By joining forces with The MLC and their DQI initiative, we are taking a big step forward toward solving the metadata problem.”  

  >  For Abby North from Music Data Services, a music rights manager that works with self-published songwriters and small publishers, the DQI is "a tremendous asset" and that the ability to clearly identify disparities in the CMO’s data and compare it to its clients’ "takes us one step closer to accurate registrations and  accounting, and therefore, increased collections." North added that The MLC "is the first CMO I know of that has made tools for rights holders that provide clear, transparent reporting of internal data conflicts."

  >  William Gary, Manager of Operations at TuneRegistry, said the partnership will allow small- and medium-sized rights holders to be able "to register their works and metadata via the same streamlined  process they are used to, while seamlessly checking the accuracy of their work registrations at The MLC."