Monokrome Music launches catalogue review service rightsAUDIT; adds to senior team

27 November 2019 - Press release

— Aimed at artists, managers, labels, and other rights-holders

— Fully managed service enables complete review of rights, data, contractual relationships

— Complements newly enhanced rightsHUB platform

— Run in collaboration with former Mr Bongo ops director Graham Luckhurst, founder of Unique Uncut

— Sam Taylor joins Monokrome Music as Head of Commercial Partnerships

 

Monokrome Music has launched rightsAUDIT: a hands-on, managed service for rights-holders including artists, labels, managers, and songwriters, designed to help them to thoroughly review their catalogue and stay on top of crucial rights information. 

rightsAUDIT staff work with content owners to provide a thorough review of every track in their catalogue to ensure they are working within their contractual obligations; check the status of rights reversions; ensure that tracks are registered with all relevant worldwide partners (CMOs, PROs); ensure timely reporting from contractual relationships; and generally take control of rights and data. The service will harness Monokrome's purpose-built rights management platform rightsHUB. 

The service will be delivered as a collaboration between Monokrome Music and label services outfit Unique Uncut, newly founded by Graham Luckhurst (former Director of Operations at Mr Bongo.)Luckhurst will lead rightsAUDIT's strategic development, bringing over 15 years' experience of music distribution, publishing, marketing, advertising, e-commerce, A&R, campaign management, and product and brand development. 

In addition, Sam Taylor has joined Monokrome Music as Head of Commercial Partnerships. Taylor brings knowledge of both the music and technology businesses thanks to roles including CCO of messaging startup I AM POP; UK Brand Manager at digital distributor TuneCore; and Director of Global Marketing for sports and music domain registry owner Asiamix Digital. Alongside his role at rightsHUB, he continues to advise a range of other clients in the music and technology space.

Monokrome Music CEO Lee Morrison says: "It's great to welcome Graham and Sam to the team to help launch this much-needed service for artists, labels, managers, and songwriters alike.

"rightsAUDIT has been a long time coming. Since I was the head of digital for Skint/Loaded Records, I've felt the need for a service like this. While organising the catalogue for digital distribution, there was a lot of heading to the back of the warehouse to gather information from paper contracts. Masters were all over the place and often there was no artwork or decent metadata — and this was a fairly organised label!

"As each year passes and catalogues grow, the data required by DSPs and other services only increases. Managing catalogue data is often the last thing rights-holders actually do. rightsAUDIT is all about them keeping their most valuable commodity in its best condition — after all, those rights equal money.

"It's imperative that labels keep full and up to date records of their catalogues. Many are at risk of litigation by acting outside of term; and it's important to keep up as data requirements constantly change across services."

Strategy lead for rightsAUDIT and Unique Uncut Founder Graham Luckhurst adds: "It's a pleasure to collaborate with Lee and the Monokrome Music team. With rightsAUDIT, we're helping rights-holders to get their house in order, ensuring that the correct people are receiving the revenue they are due. Both the rightsAUDIT service and the rightsHUB platform are key tools in today's tech-driven music industry.  

"Across the entire industry, people struggle with this side of the business — and I don't blame them! Rights are complicated, confusing, time-consuming, and not at all creative. It's of critical importance to ensure that everything is correctly registered; that all revenue streams are being received correctly and on time; and that you take back control of rights or re-negotiate when deals expire. These income streams make the difference between being able to sink or swim when building a career or business."