rights management

OpenPlay, the back-office technology company that Universal Music, BMG and others use to manage their catalogs, said on Tuesday it hired former Dubset Media executive Bob Barbiere to lead a new service offering.
Called OpenPlay Reach, the new offering will launch in the second quarter this year and it aims to give its thousands of label and publisher clients more control over the distribution and monetization of their catalogs, and delivery of tracks to the streaming platforms, the company says.

With more than 100,000 new tracks uploaded to music platforms every day, and video assets with music components becoming more powerful generators of streaming revenue than in recent years, managing the thousands and millions of songs major music companies and publishers have in their catalogs has never been more complicated.

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At the same time, record labels and publishers are looking to automate back-office functions to save money and focus staff resources on finding new artists and talent.  

“[OpenPlay] Reach is both well-conceived and uniquely timed,” Barbiere said in a statement. “Labels and publishers are not only trying to keep up with the growing use of their catalog and rapidly expanding number of consumer touch points, they are being fiscally challenged to get more accomplished with less. While OpenPlay now powers the back office of thousands of labels and publishers, it’s been one of music’s best kept secrets. With the introduction of Reach, it will not be a secret much longer.” 

OpenPlay says it not only helps clients house their catalogs, but also distribute their songs. The OpenPlay dashboard shows effectively everything Spotify, Apple Music and other digital service providers require: rights, audio information, secondary contributors, everything associated with an individual ISRC or composition, basic publishing information, lyrics, expanded metadata and more. OpenPlay’s tools also provide distribution services like creating secure, trackable playlists to send promoters, a tool that automatically creates electronic press kits, and a dashboard for label groups to approve or reject releases from across label groups.

Its clients include all the majors — Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group — as well as BMG, Concord, HYBE, Netflix, Disney Music, Big Machine, MNRK and others, according to the company.

A veteran of music technology and digital rights clearances, Barbiere previously co-founded ClearBeats, a startup aimed at solving hassles in licensing derivative works, and was an executive at Pex, which tracks music usage and modified audio. He joins OpenPlay as executive vice president and general manager of OpenPlay Reach.

OpenPlay co-founder and chief client officer Edward Ginis says the expanded new tools further “our vision to give rights owners the independence to take asset management decisions with complete control. Bob Barbiere’s leadership will be key in driving this expansion forward and ensuring that content can be managed, delivered and monetized at scale.”