Utopia Music's Plan to Unlock Value for Creators
Utopia is a Swiss music tech company that wants to help the industry better understand data, unlock new revenue streams, and reduce friction wherever possible. To accelerate that goal it has announced its new Creator Services division, wrote a creator rights white paper with MiDIA, and made several moves in recent months.
Recent acquisitions:
- ROSTR: a company that tracks artist teams, company rosters, demographics, and other industry insights
- ForTunes, which shares music data analytics with artists and creators
- Musimap, an A.I. powered music analysis that gains insights from listening trends
- Lyric Financial, which gives artists an advance on royalties without owning the rights
Executive hires:
- Thomas Steinbrueck, Chief of Brand and Design, former Reebok creative director
- Paul Stuart, Chief Legal Officer, former general counsel at Soundtrack Your Brand
- Paul Gathercole, Chief Data Officer, former Amazon Prime Video exec
- Roberto Neri, Chief Operating Officer, former Downtown Music EVP
Utopia's goal is to help creatives monetize beyond the end product. It views experiential music as an opportunity to develop new rights and attribute income from those rights to artists. That includes songwriting, collaborations, promotions, and other forms of content that drive value to platforms.
Here's a chart from Utopia and MiDIA's white paper:
It's an ambitious goal, but it's directly aligned with the underlying goals for web3 in music. It's an opportunity for rights to catch up with the rapid pace of music innovation.
The concept makes sense in theory, and time will tell how it shakes out. New platforms will likely emerge to help creators get paid for experiential and creator-oriented rights. But the big question marks are with the Web2 platforms that are still dominant. They have taken an "ask for forgiveness, not permission" approach to rights ownership, which delays artist compensation.
Maybe Utopia can buck that trend? 2022 should be an even more exciting year for the company.
Read more about Utopia Music in Music Business Worldwide.
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