VNUE, Inc. And Pro Music Rights Partner To Create New Paradigm In Music Performance Licensing

NEW YORK, April 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- VNUE, Inc. VNUE (www.vnue.com), a leading music technology company, and upstart performing rights organization (PRO) Pro Music Rights (ProMusicRights.com), today announced that the companies have joined forces to create a new paradigm in music licensing, which both companies hope will lead to more businesses becoming licensed to play music, and at the same time, ensure the correct rights holders are being compensated.

Pro Music Rights, a privately funded for-profit PRO founded by entrepreneur, musician, and multi-millionaire music industry executive Jake P. Noch, exploded into the music licensing scene in 2018 and has quickly made a name for itself.  The company has a fast-growing catalog, representing thousands of songwriters, composers, and publishers, and is in negotiations with multiple global streaming companies.

VNUE, Inc. last year acquired its Soundstr music recognition technology (MRT), which identifies music played in real-world scenarios, such as in radio stations, bars, restaurants, and other brick and mortar establishments, and which will track the usage to a granular level, including the rights holders and the PROs associated with the work.

Together, Pro Music Rights and VNUE hope to reshape the licensing model from the typical "blanket license" scenario, to a more "utility-based" model, where licensees pay for what is actually played, and the specific stakeholders are compensated for those plays. 

"Today, in almost all situations, licensees of music must pay PROs for blanket licenses, even though the likelihood of the business using the entire catalog is quite slim," said Zach Bair, CEO of VNUE, Inc.  "The model that Pro Music Rights is developing is a much more sustainable, transparent model, and works for big and small businesses alike.  Instead of paying for music that may never be played, licensees will pay for what they use, very much like how a consumer would pay for their electric bill.  Soundstr will act as the 'meter' for all practical purposes.  This has huge benefit not just for the business owners, but especially for the rights holders.  The Soundstr platform and technology will identify when, where, and how many times their music has been performed, and will create an audit trail.  We are therefore enabling a model that has been dreamed about for a long time by artists and venues alike, but never been accomplished until now. It is Jake's forethought into creating a more sustainable model, combined with our technology and VNUE's core beliefs along the same lines, which makes this so exciting."

"Pro Music Rights is taking the approach that rights holders should be fairly compensated for each usage of their work(s) while still being affordable and transparent for all parties, including music users," said Mr. Noch.  "VNUE's Soundstr platform and the data it provides is the key ingredient in the success of the Pro Music Rights model.  Music is consumed just like electricity or water, and by creating a model whereby the fees reflect the actual usage, we create a much friendlier and transparent licensing scenario, one where the rights holders of the actual music being utilized are receiving royalties for each and every song play while still reducing licensing costs for music users."

VNUE and Pro Music Rights intend to start rollout to licensees within 3-4 months for businesses that do not have live music, and 6-12 months for those that do.  Pro Music Rights will be updating its license agreements in the coming days to reflect the Soundstr requirement.  Most licensees will pay a small monthly fee combined with a "pay-per-play" royalty, which will go 100% to the rights holders.  Bair pointed out that in the coming months, Soundstr will be introducing "beacon" technology, whereby the company believes that that targeted geo-centric advertising revenue driven by the devices will eventually offset the cost of the licenses and potentially provide business owners with another source of revenue – a win for everyone.

About Pro Music Rights, LLC. (ProMusicRights.com)
Pro Music Rights is the 5th ever formed public performance rights organization (PRO) in the United States, that controls an estimated market share of 7.4% in the USA and that represents over 2,000,000 works, some that feature such notable acts as some as Snoop Dogg, A$AP Rocky, Wiz Khalifa, Pharrell, Young Jeezy, the late Nipsey Hussle, and many others.  Pro Music Rights pays 100% of all public performance royalties directly to the performers, songwriters, publishers, and legally entitled rights holders who have joined Pro Music Rights on a monthly basis. Jake P. Noch founded Pro Music Rights in January of 2018 and serves as the company's CEO after experiencing firsthand the systematic issues that plague the field of public performance rights, and hinders the livelihood of performers, songwriters, publishers, and the creative community as a whole.  For more information, please visit promusicrights.com.

About VNUE, Inc. (www.vnue.com)
VNUE, Inc. VNUE is dedicated to further monetizing the live music experience for artists, labels, writers, and publishers, by bringing together technology such as its set.fm (www.set.fm) platform, exclusive license partner and "instant live" pioneer DiscLive (www.disclive.net), and music recognition technology (MRT) Soundstr (www.soundstr.com), which helps businesses pay fairer music license fees based on actual music usage. The veteran entrepreneurs, artists and songwriters behind VNUE are passionate about the future of their industry and ensuring that rights holders' value is not lost amid always-changing technology. VNUE's team led by CEO Zach Bair, known as the pioneer in "instant live" recording, has produced live content and created experiential products for over 15 years for artists and companies including Slash, Seether, Peter Frampton, Foreigner, The Pixies, Blondie, EMI, Capitol Records, Rob Thomas, Bad Company, REO Speedwagon, Devo, and many more.   In addition to Bair, the company's leadership team also includes Lou Mann, former GM and EVP of Capitol Records and former president of House of Blues Media Properties; Jim King, CTO, previous head of business operations and technology for Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI); Jock Weaver, former president of Hard Rock Cafe International, founder and former president of TBA Entertainment, and chairman of Heritage Trust Company, a private equity firm; Tony "Montana" Cardenas, founder of DiskFaktory and a platinum-selling Capitol Records recording artist and writer formerly with the band Great White; Jeff Zakim, former head of Digital for Blue Note Records, and Global Digital Strategy for EMI Music; and advisors Nick Lippman, of famed artist management firm Lippman Entertainment; and Nan and Bob Kingsley, of Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40.

SOURCE VNUE, Inc.