Warner Chappell Music is moving all of its European electronic processing to ICE. After a 10-month review, the publisher is expanding its partnership with ICE, a consortium of GEMA, STIM and PRS for Music that serves as a hub for licensing, collections and payment processing for online uses of compositions in Europe and elsewhere markets .
A decade ago, the European Union opened the song licensing market in Europe to competition, allowing any collective management organization (CMO) to license music for online use in different markets. In other words, while German CMO GEMA would retain its offline monopoly in Germany, for example, it would compete with other CMOs to represent songwriters, publishers and other societies for online uses of their work. In practice, the serious competition is between the French CMO SACEM and ICE, a consortium of GEMA, STIM (Sweden) and PRS for Music (UK). Other markets have also opened up to competition, although the US is not one of them.
Universal Music Publishing Group works with SACEM and ICE also works with Sony Music Publishing through SOLAR, which manages the company's Anglo-American catalogue. Warner Chappell had distributed its rights to several different processing companies, but this deal means that all of its European operations, as well as some other markets, will go through ICE.
Although the scope of author and publisher dealings with CMOs varies, this only involves editing, as Warner Chappell does its own licensing.
“In today's digital music market, there are massive amounts of data to process and we need to work with a trusted partner to ensure we provide a best-in-class service,” Warner Chappell co-chairman and CEO Guy Moot stated in the announcement of the agreement. “ICE has always proven to be an innovative and flexible partner, so we are delighted to expand our relationship with them.”
The agreement represents a significant, but not unexpected, victory for ICE. “It's an important decision and we are committed to continuing to provide the best service in the market,” said ICE's commercial director Ben McEwen stated in the announcement. “Especially in the area of electronic processing, we have led the way with initiatives such as multi-step pricing to maximize claims, along with many other innovations in matching, reporting and quality assurance.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/business/publishing/warner-chappell-moves-ice-europe-1235661258/
