Decentralized music community and discovery platform Audius enabled more than 330,000 music rights owners on its platform, including artists and songwriters, to earn royalties from a broader territorial footprint via an International Copyright Enterprise (ICE) partnership.
Audius announced its partnership with the ICE on Dec. 19 in a multi-territory licensing agreement.
Source: Audius via X
The landmark deal provides over 330,000 rights holders with a direct pathway to receive royalties for the use of their music on Audius, which spans territories that include sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia Pacific.
A new era for music rights
The partnership reflects a shared vision of leveraging emerging technology to empower creators.
Audius chief business officer Shamal Ranasinghe commented on the development:
“ICE is one of the most forward-thinking technology players in royalty collection and distribution. Establishing an agreement with them ensures that thousands of artists, songwriters, and other rights holders around the world can begin earning royalties via Audius’ global music marketplace.”
However, Audius has been actively seeking out groundbreaking deals of similar magnitudes in order to fortify a future of equity in the music royalty landscape where there had previously been very little.
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Their other recent partnerships include major industry players such as Kobalt, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR. All of these agreements point toward one of the key drivers of Audius – enabling rights holders to generate revenue directly within its decentralized ecosystem.
The platform recently announced the ability to support artists directly by offering fans the ability to support artists through direct U.S. dollar payments. Audius says these functionalities help create a transparent and artist-centric music economy.
Decentralization meets opportunity
Tim Rawlinson, the vice president of Licensing at ICE, emphasized the significance of this collaboration, saying the company’s mission is to “proactively embrace and support emerging platforms like Audius” that help creators, songwriters, and publishers benefit from a “dynamic and evolving international music ecosystem.”
“We’re happy to collaborate with Audius, whose platform not only fosters deep connections between artists and fans but also opens up new revenue opportunities to ensure sustainable growth across unique digital ecosystems.”
The Audius platform holds claim to millions of unique monthly users interacting with its site, meanwhile ICE serves more than 330,000 rights holders and has already processed trillions of music streams.
The company has long been at the forefront of simplifying licensing and ensuring accurate royalty distribution. Bringing decentralized technologies into the picture not only expands its licensing solutions, but does so in a way that puts the power and opportunities into the right hands.
Cointelegraph has reached out to Audius for additional commentary.
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