Audible Magic acquires Medianet from SOCAN

By Emmanuel Legrand

Content identification specialist Audible Magic has acquired content fulfillment and rights administration company MediaNet from Canada's rights society SOCAN. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The two parties said they had also "entered into a strategic partnership with the goal to use Audible Magic technology and services to help SOCAN improve operational accuracy and reporting to publishers and songwriters."

  Seattle-based Medianet was acquired by SOCAN in 2016 under the leadership of then-CEO Eric Baptiste, as part of a strategy to expand the line of services the rights organisation could provide to its members. However, in 2020, SOCAN reviewed the performances of its subsidiaries (which also include Dataclef and Audiam) and decided to divest from some activities.

  Audible Magic has been providing identification and compliance solutions to social networks hosting user-generated content (UGC) as well as solutions for music licensing, content identification, and rights management to social media platforms, while MediaNet delivers turnkey white label digital music solutions for Internet radio, subscription music services, on-demand streaming, and support for fitness and gaming applications.

A comprehensive range of services

  Audible Magic said that with their acquisition, the company can now "provide digital platforms a comprehensive range of services to enable and manage the use of music" and "extends its capabilities to deliver bespoke licensing from hundreds of labels and publishers, media files for more than 92 million tracks, full rights management, and royalty and payment administration."

  “Rights holders and platforms will both benefit from our combined solution and will reduce the time and complexity of managing and paying for the use of music,” said Audible Magic Chief Executive Officer Vance Ikezoye (pictured, below). “We see significant upside in enabling incremental revenues for the music ecosystem.”

  “The acquisition of the MediaNet services by Audible Magic creates long-term benefits for SOCAN’s members and clients,” added Jennifer Brown, Interim CEO of SOCAN. “Audible Magic is a knowledgeable and skilled company and we’re looking forward to working together to improve the accuracy of reporting to publishers and songwriters.”