Music Business

Audiosocket And YouTube Network StyleHaul Provide Indie Music Licensing To Videomakers

Stylehaul-logoIndie music licensing service Audiosocket today announced a partnership with Stylehaul, a fashion-focused YouTube Multi-channel Network (MCN), to provide easy licensing of indie music for producers' videos. It's a bit different from February's announcement of a deal between Universal Music Publishing and YouTube MCN's in that it features direct licensing through a StyleHaul-branded Audiosocket music store. It also provides additional revenue and marketing opportunites for indie artists working with Audiosocket.

StyleHaul's fashion MCN features over 1700 videomakers with over 47 million monthly unique views. StyleHaul also develops content featuring major brands and celebrities and "creates customized content for premium publishing and brand partners including Teen Vogue, AOL, Yahoo!, Shine, Maybelline, Sephora, OlsenBoye, and AIX."

Audiosocket Powers StyleHaul Music Store

The deal features the creation of the StyleHaul Music Store, a branded version of the Audiosocket Music Store which has fueled previous partnerships since launching in late 2011.

Music licensing for MCNs is becoming a bigger issue and made news recently when the Universal Music Publishing Group cut a deal with Fullscreen and Maker Studios.

The UMPG deal allowed MCN members to "use songs from the Universal catalog -– either as covers or as soundtracks and samples for their videos" and is apparently monetized via ad revenues. Of particular importance is the ability to immediately identify covers which generate a higher rev share.

Audiosocket does not license for cover tunes nor do they rely on advertising, rather they provide background music for a licensing fee that is based on overall impressions.

Another key difference is the fact that Audiosocket works only with indie artists, a group that typically can't get the same level of attention from YouTube that Universal's financial and legal might provides their roster.

Fashion Videos Are an Excellent Licensing Opportunity for Indie Music

While many musicians may not immediately think of fashion videos as an exceptional licensing opportunity, their wide reach can often introduce artists to new audiences. For example, Michelle Shaprow's audience expanded rapidly after being featured in some of Michelle Phan's videos.

So the partnership represents a strong win for StyleHaul's producers, who now have an easy way to license music, and for indie musicians, who have another opportunity for both revenue and marketing.

Official Site: Audiosocket

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Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at All World Dance: Videos and maintains Music Biz Blogs. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.

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2 Comments

  1. Clyde, thanks for the coverage.
    We’re thrilled to be working with Style Haul. It’s a great opportunity for our artist to get their music in front of a massive audience.
    I believe this model can be a leading innovation for licensing in social video content. Here, the audience, musicians and filmmakers all win.

  2. They make themselves sound so important and fancy . But in reality stylehaul is a terrible network. they cheap with the payments, tamper with the views and analytic codes and change the contract terms without even discussions.

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