Machine-To-Machine Media E-Commerce

Until code entirely does away with contracts human beings will continue to add a value that no machine ever can.

Machine-to-machine communication is the ideal scenario if we want to enable on a global scale, with as little friction as possible and at a reasonable cost, the licensing of works and the payment of royalties to rightsholders.  That at least is the stated premise for a recent discussion at the annual RightsTech Summit conference.

But how far have we come?  How close are we to achieving a digitized business environment for rights and royalties that is as fully realized as we see today in media distribution and consumption? Until code entirely does away with contracts will human beings will continue to add a value that no machine ever can?

“I think all of this starts with a human being. No matter what technology we apply to these systems, if a person doesn’t know how to interact or create the data that they need to disseminate, it’s just not going to get there,” said Michael Shanley of Music Reports. Technology evolves all the time, and I think we’re getting to great places in technology.  But education and information is, I think, paramount.”

Panelists for the session moderated by CCC’s Chris Kenneally included Dae Bogan co-founder & CEO of TuneRegistry, a music and rights metadata management platform; Benji Rogers, a British-born, New York-based entrepreneur, who co-founded the Dot Blockchain Music Project, an attempt to create a de-centralized global registry of music rights using blockchain technology; Michael S. Simon, President of Rumblefish, a world leader in music micro-licensing and YouTube monetization and also CEO of the Harry Fox Agency LLC, the nation’s leading provider of rights management, licensing and royalty services for the music industry; and Michael Shanley, Vice President of IT Business Development at Music Reports, developers of proprietary databases and software applications that facilitate music rights administration.