One of the most exciting things we’ve experienced over the past couple of years, is the culmination of our work in music licensing and in-app music integrations into the development of a whole new category of B2B music technology called Unified Music Systems (UMS).
Similar in concept to a CMS, which is the backbone of all web content management for businesses, a UMS is a two-sided platform that handles the entire workflow for music licensing and integration, including clearance, content management, streaming technology, and revenue tracking.
Here are four ways the Feed.fm UMS enables music rightsholders to monetize more of their catalogs while gaining market data and insights from a wide range of apps and digital environments.
New revenue
The Feed.fm UMS provides new revenue streams for music copyright holders – it’s an essential role that we play in today’s music ecosystem. We’ve been able to tap into new royalties through partnerships with PROs like SoundExchange, ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, as well as directly with partners like WMG, Merlin, Downtown Music Group, Reservoir Media, Kobalt, Warner Chappell, BMG Publishing, and more.
The fitness, health, and wellness sectors are a great example. Until a few years ago, the only money music copyright holders got from fitness companies was for background music on-premises. Over the past few years, however, we have seen an explosion in new digital fitness companies and health and wellness apps, all of which rely on music to drive their workouts and other experiences.
Over the past year, Feed.fm’s royalty payouts more than doubled, and we expect that trend to continue. Our UMS provides customers and music copyright holders with critical infrastructure and economies of scale. We provide app developers with more diverse popular music content than any single rightsholder could deliver while aggregating and fulfilling all royalty payments in a timely manner.
Before Feed.fm, many businesses found the music copyright landscape too complicated and cost-prohibitive to navigate on their own. Without a UMS, most apps forgo music integration or choose royalty-free music; others even infringe knowingly or not. The same is also true for lots of connected device companies and innovative VR, AR, and digital experience providers that need a streamlined, legal music solution.
Win Reality, a VR baseball and softball trainer, uses the Feed.fm UMS to create immersive experiences that help both aspiring and professional ball players feel like they’re in a real park. Wellen, which supports active aging, uses music to create an incredible experience that motivates and inspires its clientele of women over 50.
Music discovery
People find music in entirely different ways than they did 20, or even ten years ago. Traditional gatekeepers like radio, record stores, and print media have downsized or disappeared while music discovery transitioned to social media, playlists on streaming platforms curated by experts and enthusiasts, or other online outlets. We’ve also seen fitness instructors become outsized music influencers.
Instructors have very eclectic tastes and are always looking for high-quality music across different genres for their classes. Fitness apps are both a distribution and marketing vehicle for music discovery. Feed.fm works with major labels and an incredible list of independents and distributors to ensure we’re delivering the best musical experience to the end-user no matter where they are in the world. Sometimes, that’s a familiar hit, and sometimes, it’s a song by their new favorite band.
Feed.fm’s fitness partners benefit from our incredible curation team, who tap into expertise and experience as musicians, music biz and radio vets, and pair human selection with playback data to deliver customized stations. These stations are regularly optimized to correspond with a company’s brand, end-user demographics, exercise modality, and even instructor preferences.
And yes, it’s clear that many of these fitness instructors are influencers and even celebrities – a Peloton instructor recently signed on for a side gig with ESPN. Their classes perform better in terms of attendance and often require specific music soundtracks.
Safeguarding content
One of the major benefits our UMS offers music rightsholders is that it manages and delivers content for music industry partners using several security controls.
The proprietary music APIs that safeguard the music we stream were one of the first things our CTO & co-founder, Eric Lambrecht developed when we started building Feed.fm. All music streams directly from our company’s servers, with full transparency into every stream. If there’s ever an issue, we can turn off access immediately.
Another advantage of our full-service music content management system is that it minimizes delivery expenses for music copyright holders and automates file management and metadata (what used to be a Herculean task) for businesses. Our content ops team expertly wrangles a large volume of new content daily, working closely with engineering to ensure full compliance with all licensing stipulations properly tracked and applied.
Market Intelligence
Product data and intelligence are the heart of every modern business, and the music industry is no different. Relevant market data and insights empower artists and copyright holders to make informed decisions at every stage of the music creation and promotion process. This data-driven approach increases the likelihood of successful monetization and revenue generation.
In some cases, Feed.fm’s music player functionality includes skips, likes, and dislikes, providing feedback that’s far more sophisticated than any brick-and-mortar music integration can provide. Particularly for the fitness industry, we can aggregate data to glean valuable across-the-board insights and spot emerging trends.
The work Feed.fm is doing to bring the power of music to businesses has many applications in health and wellness that can improve our lives. We’ve worked with the world’s foremost expert on music and exercise, Professor Costas Karageorghis, which resulted in a white paper summarizing more than two decades of research on how and why music in fitness works. We also did a lot of work with Stanford professor Dr. Daniel Bowling to look into how music helps with wellness, including sleep, focus, and relaxation.
We will see many more use cases for functional music as we learn more about how it can change our mood and contribute to a wide variety of outcomes. Science is finally catching up to what we knew all along: Music is a powerful tool when applied/experienced intentionally, and we are committed to the research and learning from the data to help the music industry and businesses thrive and help people live their best lives.
Science is finally catching up to what we knew all along: Music is a powerful tool when applied/experienced intentionally, and we are committed to the research and learning from the data to help the music industry and businesses thrive and help people live their best lives.
UMS for the win
With the help of the Feed.fm Unified Music System, the music industry can maximize the potential of their extensive catalogs using the valuable market data and insights our platform generates. By tapping into the power of digital platforms and streaming services, rightsholders can expand their reach to a wider audience and unlock new streams of revenue.
Learn more about UMS for Rightsholders.
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