Sony becomes first record label to monetize illegal remixes

Sony Music Entertainment has partnered with Dubset, a rights clearance startup, to become the first label allowing rights holders to earn money from unofficial remixes.

What this means is that Sony’s catalogue will be indexed by Dubset so that an artist can earn money from unofficial remixes, edits and even samples of their music through plays on streaming platforms.

Dubset has the ability to identify material by fingerprinting audio for its Mixbank. This allows it to recognize all unofficial uploads, remixes, edits and samples found on platforms like Youtube. The company then distributes royalties accordingly. Earlier this year Dubset also acquired $4 million Series A funding, which allows it to receive a cut of Sony’s royalties.

Dubset CEO Stephen White told TechCrunch how important the company is to the music industry: “700 million people are listening to mixed content every month… If rights holders don’t embrace a platform like us, the content is going to flow anyway and it’s going to flow around them.”

According to TechCrunch, Dubset is also close to signing similar deals with the two other major record labels, Universal and Warner. This could allow all unofficial remixes and edits to be hosted on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, without the content being removed due to copyright infringement. The deal may have have a negative impact Soundcloud, which is viewed as a unique place for producers to upload unofficial material. Spotify, Apple Music and other major streaming platforms would become the ideal place to host all content, even unofficial remixes, due to their large user base.

Judging by this information, all signs point to Dubset revolutionizing the media streaming industry. And if this means tracks won’t get removed from streaming platforms due to copyright infringement, it’s promising for all content creators.

Harrison is Mixmag's East Coast Editor. Follow him on Twitter here