Photo Credit: Nick Karvounis
Austrian collection society AKM and its subsidiary Austro Mechana are the latest rightsholders to join ICE Core.
The deal continues the exponential growth of the IE Core, which smashed its record monthly distribution, passing its customers more than €102m ($107M) in November alone.
“The ICE Core reflects the best licensing solution for online music services, with the best value, for our members,” says Gernot Graninger, CEO AKM. “We will receive services which combine market-leading expertise and state-of-the-art technological systems, without our members needing to face the costs of large-scale investments. In these times more than ever, societies need to find the right services at the right value.”
The AKM journey also reflects the range of ways that collection societies and publishers with different service needs can join the ICE Core. Initiated by cooperation with GEMA–the German collection society–it has been a step-by-step process to develop this partnership, which now enters its next stage.
“We’re glad that GEMA has been in a position to facilitate the right service for AKM’s needs and support their smooth transition,” adds Thomas Theune, Director Online & Broadcast, GEMA. “We look forward to serving other societies’ and publishers’ needs in the future.”
Men McEwen, Chief Commercial Officer, ICE adds: “We’re very happy to welcome AKM into the Core. The collaboration to make this happen reflects all parties working together in the interests of rightsholders, the very DNA of everyone who is part of the ICE hub. It’s a real strength of the ICE Core that you can join as a member of any scale; new rightsholders can come in through existing ICE Core members, getting the same ICE Core rates and also benefiting from additional value-add services to meet their needs.”
“Or, in circumstances where systems, capabilities, and volumes support it, rightsholders can come in directly. In turn, each new member enhances the collective, with the ICE Core repertoire benefiting greatly from the inclusion of additional society and publisher repertoires,” McEwen concludes.
AKM and Austro Mechana are collective management organizations. They are authorized by members to administer their rights. AKM administers the performing rights, broadcasting rights, and making available rights in musical works with or without text from composers, authors, and their legal successors and music publishers in Austria. Austro Mechana administers the reproduction and distribution rights in musical works with or without text from composers, authors, and their legal successors and music publishers in Austria.
ICE is the music technology company created by rightsholders, for rightsholders. It delivers accurate and transparent royalties to songwriters while simplifying the process for digital service providers (DSPs) by providing publishers and collective management organizations with superior licensing, processing, and copyright services. ICE represents over 330,000 rightsholders and has processed trillions of online music uses, paying over €2.9 billion to rightsholders since March 2016.