Merlin Completes Indie Deal With Catch Media’s Play Anywhere
Indie Global rights agency Merlin has completed a deal with Catch Media's Play Anywhere portable music service. Catch also has deals with Universal and WMG and is in talks with the other two majors.
Play Anywhere, which was one of the winners of the 2009 Music Ally/MidemNet New Business Showcase, puts personal music and video collections onto the “cloud” and enables subscribers access and play across multiple devices including mobile, PC and in-car regardless of DRM and formats. The service is attractive to labels because it "monetizes a consumer’s post-acquisition consumption while encouraging new acquisition through super-distribution" and rights holders "receive real-time usage reporting to drive targeted marketing".
About Merlin
Merlin officially began operations in May 2008. Since then it has been
involved in negotiations with a number of digital services and in
October 2008 announced its first deal with the newly launched music
streaming service Spotify. With over 12,000 labels, Merlin represents
the largest collection of independent music rights in the world, with a
US market share of over 9%, equivalent to that of the smaller majors.
Merlin labels include Domino, Beggars Group, KOCH (now E1 Music), Epitaph and [PIAS], whose artist rosters include Arctic Monkeys, Adele, Anthony & The Johnsons, Basement Jaxx, Bjork, DJ Khaled, Franz Ferdinand, Maxïmo Park, Röyksopp, and Vampire Weekend.
From The Press Release:
Said Charles Caldas, Merlin CEO “The Play Anywhere system is an exciting new development. Not only does it provides consumers with a convenient, safe and practical way to access their collections, but it generates new revenue for our labels that simply did not exist before. We are delighted to have the world’s most important independent repertoire that we represent included in this groundbreaking initiative.”
Yaacov Ben-Yaacov Catch Media CEO commented "We are very excited to partner with such a forward thinking company like Merlin, which has not only rapidly grown to be one of the most commercially significant source of independent music, but is also at the forefront of revolutionizing the licensing of digital music. "
