Music Reports Inc., an independent music rights administration platform, has acquired Blokur, a music licensing and data platform, broadening its portfolio of services for music rights holders.
Blokur, a music data and licensing platform based in London, was founded in 2015. It connects music to emerging internet activities.
The company works with music rights owners and various online platforms, using proprietary data matching and rights identification technologies to secure accurate payments to rights holders and facilitate music integration into digital platforms.
Blokur's acquisition complements Music Reports' existing services and technology, according to a press statement issued on January 31. The financial specifics of the acquisition were not disclosed.
"BLOKUR WILL HELP MUSIC REPORTS ACCELERATE OUR MATCHING, REGISTRATIONS, AND REPORTING TO ENHANCE OUR INDUSTRY-LEADING PLATFORM AND SURPASS OUR CUSTOMERS' EXPECTATIONS."
Michael Shanley - Music Reports
"Blokur will assist Music Reports in accelerating our matching, registration, and reporting to improve our industry-leading platform and exceed our clients' expectations. Music Reports will deliver significant new capabilities for the rightsholder community by integrating Blokur's technology, according to Michael Shanley, VP and General Manager of Audio Services at Music Reports.
Music Reports handles numerous music composition rights, including mechanical, public performance, and synchronization rights, throughout over 200 territories globally. Music Reports has its own music rights registry, Songdex, and offers other rights services in areas such as streaming audio, video on demand, television, satellite, and radio broadcasting, commercial music, user-generated content, fitness, and music teaching.
Music Reports claims that it presently handles royalties for "billions of transactions" per month.
"TO MEET THE NEEDS OF MUSIC REPORTS' RAPIDLY GROWING LIST OF TOP-TIER CUSTOMERS, WE ARE CONTINUALLY IMPROVING AND SCALING OUR GLOBAL SOLUTIONS FOR MUSIC RIGHTS."
JEREMY VERBA, MUSICAL REPORTS
"To meet the needs of Music Reports' rapidly growing list of top-tier customers, we are constantly improving and scaling our global music rights solutions," stated Jeremy Verba, CEO of Music Reports.
Blokur CEO Phil Barry also remarked on the agreement, saying, "We are so proud of what we've accomplished at Blokur over the last eight years and look forward to augmenting Music Reports' royalty payout processes and content identification systems."
"Joining forces with the team at Music Reports allows us to scale our technology platform and deliver for the next generation of companies seeking to include music in their offerings."
"WE ARE SO PROUD OF WHAT WE'VE ACCOMPLISHED IN THE LAST EIGHT YEARS AT BLOKUR AND LOOK FORWARD TO AUGMENTING MUSIC REPORTS' ROYALTY PAYOUT PROCESSES AND CONTENT IDENTIFICATION SYSTEMS."
PHIL BARRY AND BLOKUR
Music Reports, billed as a competitor to mechanical rights clearinghouse Harry Fox Agency (HFA), was completely acquired by private equity firm MidOcean Partners in 2020.
Pandora partnered with Music Reports in 2016 to manage mechanical licensing and royalties for its on-demand streaming service. This agreement was viewed as a step toward avoiding legal issues akin to Spotify's experience in 2015, when it faced two class action lawsuits totaling more than $150 million each for alleged failures to provide proper technical royalty payments to songwriters.
Music Business Worldwide