Author: Press Officer

Oiche Events has just announced the launch Ireland ‘s newest music platform The X Collective. With music and artistic expression at its core, The X Collective is a creative platform that has opened its doors to the Irish music industry, focusing on the production and promotion of Irish recording artists and industry creatives. 

Founded by industry pro’s, Emily Shaw (Oiche Events) and Ele Breslin (ZAPHO), The X Collective is a growing community with over 70 artists and creatives already signed up to the initiative offering a broad spectrum of music industry skills and expertise including recording, songwriting, producing, management, PR, videographhy, event management and much more. 

The first of its kind in Ireland, the X Collective will see community members working together to optimize creativity and achieve combined success. Collaborations within The X Collective allow independent artists to benefit from higher creativity as well as wider exposure while receiving much needed support from fellow music industry professionals available to share their expertise.

Commenting on the launch of the X Collective is co-founder Emily Shaw: “The music industry has been hit hard by the restrictions that are in place today with the news of cancelled gigs and events. Now seems like no better time to join together, encourage and launch this collective as we had originally intended prior to Covid-19, and to open up a space where collaboration is possible and creatives can continue to create. The X Collective will see each artist collaborate with a fellow musician to create original songs, passing it on to our creatives to package the product which we will then release via the collective and promote as a community. Under the current climate these collaborations will be from a distance.” 

Also commenting on the launch is fellow co-founder and music artist Ele Breslin (ZAPHO): “The X collective aims to highlight a diverse range of social, political and musical ideas that are important to the Irish music community. Through the work of our artists will bring a voice to topics such as diversity, inclusivity, women in music, LGBT rights, gender imbalance in the music industry, mixed heritage; mental health, kindness, freedom, the housing crisis, Covid-19 related issues, creativity, fashion, spirituality and much more.”

The X Collective has already seen some of Ireland’s leading artists joining the collective including: Shiv, Tolu Makay, Shookrah, Zapho, ELKAE, Toshín, Shy Mascot, Gemma Bradley, Mutant Vinyl, Brenna Carroll, Zennie Summers as well as a host of music industry professionals working to promote and elevate the musical industry landscape in Ireland and beyond.

The first project to be released as part of The X Collective will be a new record brought to you by Zapho, Tolu Makay and Jenny Browne titled, ‘Collide’. The track was recorded in self-isolation, with musicians collaborating from across counties and countries. Collide will be released on June 12th. 

ICE has launched Licensr, a new online self-service tool that enables smaller online music services to get multi-territory coverage for use of the ICE Core repertoire in a matter of minutes.

Licensr simplifies life for those developing new music services and increases the speed new services can be brought to market. The user can select, pay for, and receive confirmation of a licence covering ICE Core repertoire (the ‘ICE Direct Licence’) in a quick and easy process that requires no prior knowledge of music licensing.

For creators whose rights are included within the ICE Core repertoire, Licensr helps ensure their rights are being represented when their work is being used on new services and supports the development of new music experiences.

The launch of Licensr highlights a commitment from ICE towards making the licensing process simpler. It will continue to work with music services and rightsholders to add new functionality to the tool.

“Licensr is a simple self-service solution to enable new and developing music services to license ICE Core repertoire” commented Ben McEwen, VP Commercial at ICE. “It starts to bring greater simplicity and flexibility to those with ideas for new services that utilise music but are daunted by the complexity of licensing and we are keen to collect feedback to further enhance the solution over time. In the meantime it immediately adds another income source for creators as we continue to seek to ensure rightsholders in the ICE Core receive fair value for the use of their work.”

Pascal De Mul, CEO of Exit Live, the first Licensr customer, an innovative service offering fans audio recordings of live concerts remarked “Simple licensing is essential to helping services like us innovate and focus on our core proposition, which for Exit Live is helping artists monetise live performances both on the evening of the gig and historically. Licensr has been by far the easiest rights process we’ve had.”

Through Licensr services will receive publishing (mechanical & performing) rights for music in the extensive ICE Core repertoire. Typical services that would utilise the Licensr service have revenues under €250k per annum, operating across areas including on demand and interactive streaming and download stores.

Licensr additionally supports non-broadcaster services moving online in the current climate, such as those streaming fitness classes or other live video services with on-demand functionality. They can quickly and easily get their mechanical & performing rights for ICE Core repertoire through Licensr and use the form to contact ICE for an additional guided process to support them in clearing and/or signposting them to additional rights they may need.

Find out more at www.iceservices.com/licensr

New music discovery platform, Andrson, is an app that will help artists get heard and discovered from their ‘front room’ and also enable A&R executives to connect directly with the artists they need to fill their rosters—without ever having to step into a gig. Andrson has been designed to reimagine the digital A&R process. Rather than focusing on passive metrics like listening behavior and social media popularity, Andrson’s technology uses AI and machine learning to produce unbiased analyses of users’ music, which makes it easier for musicians to be discovered by their unique sound and for industry professionals to quickly find the sound they’re searching for. Andrson also helps musicians connect with other artists for collaborations.                           

Andrson launched on 27th April 2020, with artists poised to sign up across Ireland, the UK, and the US, and a goal to be a truly global platform in the next year. Andrson will be offering all artists a premium free trial for the rest of 2020 – given that digital connections are becoming more important — if not essential and necessary — right now. This extended free trial and access allows artists to upload as many tracks as they want for analysis, as well as allows them to have industry visibility (which is gated for free users). To get their music listed for industry search, all musicians have to do is sign up for the premium free trial.

Andrson completed a seed round of €550k and was recently named as part of enterprise Ireland’s HPSU (high potential start up) class of 2020 which also delivered an additional €250k of match funding. The platform is co-founded by Zach Miller-Frankel and Neil Dunne, who came up with the idea for Andrson whilst they were at university in Dublin. Both experienced and passionate music industry professionals, Andrson was born out of their own pain-point for inefficiencies working in music discovery and A&R – and a passion and purpose for helping new musicians having the chance to be better discovered and heard. With $4.5 billion spent on music discovery each year globally and over $2 billion worldwide – Zach and Neil created Andrson to close the gap between new talent and A&R executives.

How It Works:

Once musicians sign up, they can immediately access the platform and view all the features, and are encouraged to create their own profile, showcasing themselves, their music, video and influences. Andrson’s technology will digitally fingerprint their music and video uploads, and compare it against a database of thousands of songs from top artists to rising stars, creating search reference points based on their results.

On the other side, record labels and A&R executives also register and can then search the platform for music types or profiles that their roster needs but can’t find. As music executives search for the sound they need, Andrson serves them results in seconds through the use of audio AI and predictive analytics. For example, if Andrson says an act sounds 70% like Beyonce and a label searches for that, the artists who match that criteria will be returned in the search results, and the label can listen to the artists and reach out directly to any musician of interest—all done in-app.  Andrson exists to give musicians the opportunity to be discovered by the top A&R teams, bookers, promoters and producers. At the same time the platform’s proprietary algorithm enables rapid discovery for labels to help them fill specific gaps on their roster and successfully monetise new music.

Other key features:

• An interactive user dashboard (home screen) provides meaningful account data: user specific analysis detailing who’s listened and from where; who is a connection and how many and frequency of searches artists have appeared in as well as any deals secured. 

• Musicians receive ‘LinkedIn-style’ notifications when a professional interacts with their profile (i.e. “someone from XX label just listened to X” or “Joe Bloggs from XX just sent you a message”)

• For 2020 all users will be able to use the premium service which gives them visibility to industry engaging with their music, network with other artists and full audio analysis. Free users (2021 onwards) can network with other artists and receive limited audio analysis.

Ken Allen, Founder at Faction Records says: “Andrson is a really interesting concept, the nature of how we discover artists is changing and having a platform like Andrson would be hugely helpful to our A&R process.”

Zach Miller-Frankel, Co-Founder at Andrson comments: “At Andrson we are passionate about new music discovery and using technology to help talent get discovered by the music industry and vice versa. Based on our own experiences in A&R, we believe that a new way of doing business is required within the music industry. Whilst there will always be a place for on-the-ground discovery, our proprietary algorithm leverages the power of tech to help save time and money for the music industry – as well as enable discovery whilst we’re socially distancing.”

Neil Dunne, Co-Founder at Andrson adds: “We want to help music acts get heard and discovered, after all they deserve their talent to be showcased as well as to make meaningful connections with other artists. Andrson is an online platform from where new talent can be discovered from their ‘front room’.”

http://andrson.com/

World Intellectual Property Day 2020 will be marked on Sunday 26 April in Ireland and globally. IMRO Adjunct Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the Law Society of Ireland Dr Mark Hyland highlights the importance of legally protecting creativity and innovation at all times, but particularly now during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr Hyland noted that, “In Ireland and across the globe, the music and arts sectors are providing a vital ray of hope in the crisis. A good example of this is last weekend’s One World: Together at Home concert organised by the Global Citizen movement and the World Health Organization (WHO). The show focused on entertainment and messages of solidarity during these challenging times. The concert applauded frontline healthcare workers around the world and proceeds generated by the event went to the Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the WHO.” 

“Despite this heart-warming event, there is no doubt but that the music and creative industries are being badly hit by the lockdown.”

Dr Hyland explains, “Without the ability to perform in public, record in studios, take part in music and arts festivals, or hold exhibitions, musicians and artists generally have suffered a major financial blow.  It is vital that the IP in their works be recognised and protected, now more than ever.”

He added, “The current precarious situation for musicians and artists also makes the speedy implementation of the new Copyright Directive by our government all the more important. This Directive addresses the “value gap”, whereby rightsholders are receiving less remuneration despite increased usage of their works, particularly online, in recent years.”

Importance of IP rights

The term “intellectual property” (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, and symbols, names and images used in commerce. Intellectual property rights (IPRs) are the legal rights given to persons over the creations of their minds. The main IPRs are patents, trademarks, copyright and designs. These important rights protect such things as music, literary works, software, inventions, distinctive words or symbols and, the visual design of objects. IPRs usually give the creator exclusive rights over the use of their creations for a certain period of time.

“World IP Day provides us with an opportunity to recognise and highlight the importance of IPRs and the key role they play in encouraging innovation and creativity throughout the world in the twenty-first century,” Dr Hyland said.

Contribution to the economy

IMRO-commissioned research shows that the music industry alone contributes more than €700 million annually to the Irish economy and employs approximately 13,000 people nationwide. 

“More generally, according to a 2019 joint report by the EU Intellectual Property Office and the European Patent Office, IP-intensive industries contribute a very significant 65% to Ireland’s GDP.  This is the largest contribution among the 27 EU Member States.”

“For a small, open, knowledge-based economy like Ireland, IP and the protection of IP are key elements of our economic success,” according to Dr Hyland.

Additional EU action is needed to make sure EU help reaches the ravaged media and culture sectors, say EP Culture committee members.

The culture and creative sector in the EU – especially individual creators and SMEs – and the media sector are being decimated by the crisis.

The European Union must therefore do more to help those struggling sectors to get back on their feet, stress the members of the European Parliament’s Culture and Education Committee, in a letter to Commissioners Thierry Breton and Mariya Gabriel, sent on Monday.

Emergency support fund for media

The media and press sectors currently play a crucial role in providing accurate information and thorough reporting. They are a critical antidote to fake news and disinformation, MEPs say. Yet the sector is currently being hit very hard, with a drop of as much as 80% of advertising revenue in some member states and uncertainty being the only certainty for the future..

MEPs are asking the Commission to explore the potential for an emergency fund to support the media and press sector, drawing on funds that cannot be spent under other programmes because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Culture and creative sector: help individual creators

They point out that the cultural and creative sector is made up of many individual creators and SMEs, as well as charities. Their status often makes it harder for them to qualify for national or EU support schemes.

To make sure EU funds reach the sector, MEPs are asking the Commission to consider increasing the Cultural and Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility (Creative Europe programme) by topping it up from the 2021 budget, or transferring funds from the European Fund for Strategic Investments.

Creating an ad hoc financial instrument under the European Investment Fund to channel funds to the sector should also be considered.

EU response to COVID-19 response is a good start, but more needs to be done

“The changes to the Structural Funds rules agreed by the European Parliament on Friday can help unlock additional financing. Projects dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic now qualify for 100% financing and thematic concentration rules have been loosened, so funds can be more easily channelled to where they are needed most,” said EP Culture Committee chair Sabine Verheyen (EPP, DE) on Monday.

“This money must reach the cultural and creative and media sectors quickly by responding to the specific business models and their particular needs. We call on the Commission and the member states to ensure that support schemes reach all those who need them. But we also need to do more at EU level to provide tailored support to the sectors as well as to provide credit and access to finance the cultural and creative sector”, she added.