EMI’s Neil Tinegate Details OpenEMI’s Support for Indie Developers
I recently spoke with Neil Tinegate, EMI Music VP of Digital Projects about OpenEMI. OpenEMI is one of the best examples I've seen of a well-established corporate entity finding a direct connection to the innovative energy of startups. Though OpenEMI is available to anyone with the ability to realize a great idea, it is particularly well-designed for small shops, the two guys in a garage model for music tech entrepreneurship.
EMI's OpenEMI initiative in partnership with The Echo Nest helps them connect with music tech developers who sometimes create totally unexpected uses of the content EMI makes available. The program was praised highly in a recent paidContent case study by Mark Mulligan.
An interview with Neil Tinegate by Louis Hau relates such news as the addition of Robbie Williams' catalog and upcoming apps for Now That's What I Call Music! and the Blue Note catalog. Tinegate informed me that they actually see their accomplishments to date as only a "small step" and ultimately want to make all EMI-related music and related assets available. However, no timetable is set due to the need to negotiate individually with artists and management.
EMI doesn't just make music available but also makes available such assets as:
- audio – full length, 30 second, metadata
- video – commercial & promo videos including backstage material
- graphics – wallpapers, banners
- publicity – photo shoots, press releases
- games – from Gorillaz
Content is made available in "sandboxes" via The Echo Nest and is organized by individual acts and by collections such as Blue Note's catalog (which is a huge offering in and of itself).
Startups and developers create prototypes, bring the idea to EMI, after discussion and development EMI goes to artist management, EMI takes that discussion back to the developer and continues the process until everyone is satisfied.
EMI offers a lot of support beyond simply providing API access to content. They also conduct weekly calls with developers discussing such topics as business models. Tinegate revealed that part of the strength of working with Echo Nest, who often participate in such calls, is their knowledge of the business of apps.
Everyone is paid out of the revenue share with no upfront fees or licensing fees to developers. 40% net after costs goes to the tech side including Echo Nest and developers with the developers getting the lion's share. 60% goes to rights holders and EMI takes care of paying all those people, clearing all licensing issues and rights to content. They then continue their support into the marketing process.
EMI and The Echo Nest end up doing a lot of heavy lifting for indie developers. Artists and artist management are responding favorably boding well for the future. Tinegate says they have a regular presence at Music Hack Days and are very open to new ideas. I'd love to see outreach into college communities as well. I could see students and faculty creating some great music apps.
Hypebot Features Writer Clyde Smith maintains his freelance writing hub at Flux Research and music industry resources at Music Biz Blogs. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
