Spotify-Backed ‘Soundtrack Your Brand’ Cuts Direct Deals

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Spotify-backed music streaming service Soundtrack Your Brand today announced direct deals with hundreds of music labels, publishers, and collection societies including Sony/ATV, Kobalt, WarnerChappel, ICE (PRS/GEMA/STIM), BMG, ASCAP, SOCAN, SABAM, and APRA. The new deals use a per-stream compensation model that pays creators more accurately for background music used by retailers, restaurants and hotels. Retailers pay about $35 per month for licensed streaming based on the Spotify platform. Soundtrack Your Brand now has a catalog of 26 million tracks.

Co-founded by former Spotify head of biz dev Andreas Liffgarden and Beats co-founder Ola Sars, Soundtrack Your Brand has raised $33 million to date. Companies using the service include McDonald’s, Tag Heuer, Uniqlo, Joe & The Juice, Aesop, W Hotels and Moschino and thousands of smaller retailers. Competitors in the sector include Muzak owner Mood Media (who is also a partner in Pandora's business service) and Play Network . Highlights of today's announcement:

For the first time, a background music service will license most of its music usage directly from labels and publishers, and the new deals include a per-stream-based compensation model that will make sure that all artists and composers get paid accurately.
"Until now, outdated technology has hampered the background music market for decades, making it impossible for providers to pay music-makers fairly."
To further help business owners play licensed music, Soundtrack Your Brand plans to offer the service on a tiered basis and introduces a range of new features, including the ability to drag-and-drop Spotify playlists straight into the music mix, unlocking them for legal use in a commercial setting.

“In the early days at Spotify, we worked around the mantra of “better than piracy”. At Soundtrack we are facing a similar challenge, educating and inspiring business users to do the right thing, and to start using Soundtrack instead of B2C services or rogue B2Bservices,” says Andreas Liffgarden, Chairman & Co-Founder, Soundtrack Your Brand.