Teosto a Partner in Open Music Initiative – Aim to resolve media rights issues
Teosto is a partner in Open Music Initiative (OMI), a groundbreaking initiative led by Berklee College of Music’s Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship (BerkleeICE). The aim of the OMI is to dramatically simplify the way that music creators and rights owners are identified and compensated – a thorny issue that has challenged the music industry and stifled creator incomes and industry revenues since the dawn of the digital era.
The effort will combine BerkleeICE’s expertise in the music industry with the MIT Media Lab’s expertise in decentralized platforms to help advance the development of open source frameworks and innovation related to music rights and their associated uses in all media forms.
In addition to BerkleeICE and researchers from the MIT Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative, the OMI working group also includes researchers and faculty from University College London and other leading academic institutions. Operational and strategic guidance will be provided by IDEO, the global design and innovation company, and Context Labs, a media tech company that is leading and coordinating the technical platform for the project.
Though initiatives like this have been attempted in the past, this is the first time that the effort is led by a broad coalition that includes academic institutions, entrepreneurs, technologists, non-profits and, most importantly, enjoys representation from all facets of the music industry unifying around the issue.
The effort has garnered broad support, with more than 50 leading founding entities, organizations and startups across the music industry ecosystem having signed agreements to participate. Besides Teosto participants include, among others: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, BMG, Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, SoundCloud, Netflix, SiriusXM, WBUR (Boston’s NPR news station), CD Baby, Tunecore, Downtown Music Publishing, the French collective rights management organization SACEM, mechanical licensing service provider HFA and its rights management affiliate, Rumblefish, Righsshare, the trade groups Featured Artist Coalition, Music Managers Forum, Future of Music Coalition, and a wide variety of startups in the developing area of music rights licensing.
Charting a Course for the Future
Digital adoption has changed both the way creators create music and the way music lovers consume it, yet compensation structures and contracts have not advanced in the way they should. To solve the challenges today’s music industry currently faces, OMI aims to establish a global, open sourced platform, providing technology for a shared ledger of music creators and rights owners.
OMI will provide advocacy for all members in its operating model, promoting entrepreneurialism, innovation, transparency and expediency for all creators, performers and rights holders of music around the world. OMI’s mission includes elements of technology, advocacy, education and policy, all aimed at aligning industry participants around an inclusive stakeholder framework.
Teosto representative at Slush Music in Helsinki
Teosto participated an OMI event and a workshop held in London November 22nd, 2016. The workshop arranged as part of the event focused on metadata, identity and security, system architecture, micro payments and reporting.
Representatives of various OMI partners have a chance to also see each other – and a lot more – when participating Slush Music in Helsinki on November 30th. Slush, the leading business startup event in Europe, introduces an entirely new conference called Slush Music, which combines music, technology and entrepreneurship. On 30 November, Slush Music will bring together 1,500 professionals at Cable Factory, Helsinki, to give a boost to the multi-billion-euro music technology sector.
On Thursday 1 December, Slush Music will integrate into the main event at Messukeskus. Teosto is the main partner in Slush Music.
Teosto will also take part in two programmes at Slush Music on Wednesday at Cablefactory:
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11:30 a.m. The Fight for the Share of Ear (Tempo Stage)
In the talk, arranged together with Nelonen Media, Director of Radio Content Johannes Saukko speaks about the future of audio content, while Markus Kaarto, Head of Music Licensing at Teosto, discusses music licensing for audio content.
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3:30 p.m. Blockchain – Music and Next Steps (Drop Stage).
Turo Pekari (Senior Advisor, Innovation and Discovery) from Teosto will be part of the panel discussion hosted by Allen Bargfrede.
Slush Music programme and speaker introductions: http://music.slush.org/
At Teosto’s stand visitors can see something truly special: the world’s first video that takes place in virtual reality
In the work created for the song Avalon by the Finnish rap artist View (Juuso Ruohonen), viewers take a journey in which the real Slush Music environment at Cable Factory intertwines together with fictional elements to create a surreal world where viewers can move around, observing themselves and the world around them: the work begins at Cable Factory at Teosto’s stand, where the viewer sees him or herself watching the video; but where will journey lead next and where will it end? Confusing? Yes. Impressive? Definitely.
The work, which is viewed using HTC Vive VR glasses, was created using the Unity3D game engine. Several software programs were used to produce the video, including Lightwave3D, 3D-Coat, Photoshop, Brekel and Perception Neuron.
Further information:
Turo Pekari, Senior advisor, innovation and discovery, Teosto
+358 50 575 0357, turo.pekari(at)teosto.fi