We had to overcome illegal barriers of entry by traditional competitors in Spain, which implied court cases before the Spanish Competition Authority and the commercial courts. We started operations in January, but we have been working for over two years on our platform development, Business Development and licensing and legal matters. “We currently have over 100 clients, which include writers, publishers and international CMOs.” We also represent some local Spanish and Latam top composers directly for their entire repertoire, which includes productions for some of the most successful artists in this space, such as Rosalía or C. One of our US clients controls a very large number of compositions, which includes shares in works interpreted by all of those top artists. We currently have over 100 clients, which include writers, publishers and international CMOs. What has been the secret to you representing such a strong blockbuster catalog despite only being officially launched in January? Here, Unison’s Chief Executive Officer, Jordi Puy, tells MBW how his blockchain-ready firm has been able to rack up such a formidable list of clients in a short space of time – and why, in his view, major publishers, songwriters and CMOs around the world should think about joining them… You already represent shares in works made famous by the likes of Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Rosalía, Eminem and many more. “I want to see positive change and a better environment for culture and the creatives here, and rather than sitting around and waiting for it to come to me I decided to work with a new company who offer a more efficient, transparent and artist-oriented service.” “Every musician in Spain knows about the issues we have been having related to royalty collection and payment for public performance,” Alizzz says of his decision to join Unison. “I decided to work with offer a more efficient, transparent and artist-oriented service.” Tangana, amongst many others, became a Unison client earlier this year. Platinum-selling Spanish DJ/producer Alizzz (aka Cristian Quirante), who has worked on music by Latin star Rosalía and Spanish hitmaker C. Unison’s efforts don’t stop at royalty collecting, either: last year, it played a pivotal role in lobbying the Spanish Competition Authority (CNMC) to fine SGAE €2.95m for abusing its dominant position in Spain’s music copyright market.
#MIND IN UNISON OFFLINE#
These agreements enable Unison, in tandem with its partners, to manage the collection of royalties for both online and offline uses of its catalog in these territories. Outside of Europe, to date Unison has inked more than 20 partnerships with PROs in markets such as Brazil (via ABRAMUS), Canada (via SOCAN), Nigeria (via COSON) and South Africa (via CAPASSO and SAMRO). The IME, based in Barcelona, launched at the start of this year, and already represents the management of more than 600,000 works for international clients – including cuts on hits recorded by the likes of Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Eminem, Run DMC, Janis Joplin and Tupac.Īs well as collecting royalties in Spain for these songs, Unison also recently became the first European IME with the power to directly grant multi-territorial digital licenses in the EU. That all changed in 2014, when the European Union passed a directive allowing IMEs (Independent Management Entities) to challenge these incumbent CMOs – a right which, in Spain, was further enshrined by local rulings in 20. Now, SGAE has real competition in Spain in the form of Unison – whose client list is already seriously impressive, and whose ambitions stretch far beyond the borders of its home nation.įor decades in Europe, the only option for publishers and songwriters – not to mention international CMOs looking for a local partner – was the incumbent collection society in each territory.
#MIND IN UNISON SERIES#
The apex of this story arrived last year when global body CISAC kicked Spain’s incumbent CMO for publishers and songwriters, SGAE, out of its membership following a series of damaging allegations. Allow MBW to make a rather bold presumption, and suggest that “transparent” isn’t readily popping into your temporal lobe.įor years, the European territory’s music industry has been blighted by accusations of corruption and scandal.
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