Digital licensing design camp

Co-designing solutions to modernize music licensing

Table of figures:
List of acronyms and abbreviations
1. Introduction
- Music industry and copyright management: stakes and opportunities
- Project overview
2. Summary of outcomes
3. Approach
4. Phase 1: Setting the stage & envisioning the future
- Unconference sessions
- Visioning tool: Hill Valley Telegraph
5. Phase 2: Generating ideas & prototyping
- Ideation
- Prototyping
6. Phase 3: Business model canvas & pitch presentation
- Business model canvas
- Expert panel
7. 16 Prototypes
- Prototypes in Toronto
- Prototypes in Montreal
8. Conclusion
9. About
- MaRS Solutions Lab
- Projektae
10. Appendix

Table of figures:

Figure 1: First edition of Hill Valley Telegraph

Figure 2: Canadian boat at Montreal

Figure 3: Second edition of Hill Valley Telegraph

Figure 4: Ideation period

Figure 5: Team's board of its ideation for Digital Licensing

Figure 6: Prototyping contract model

Figure 7: Final ideas putting on paper

Figure 8: Ready to present our work

Figure 9: Expert's meeting

Figure 10: Scheme of the NOTES royalty exchange

Figure 11: Scheme of the PGMP idea

List of acronyms and abbreviations

APEM: Professional musical edition association (Association des Professionnels de l'Edition Musicale)
API: Application Program Interface
BMG: Bertelsmann Music Group
CIPO: Canadian Intellectual Property Office
CMO: Content Management Organizations
CMRRA: Canadian Musical Reproductions Rights Agency
CND: Caldera Network Desktop (Linux)
COPIBEC: Non-profit Organization who acts into the Copyright Management sector
CSI: CMRRA-SODRAC Inc.
DESS: Diplômes d'Études Supérieures Spécialisées
DLDC: Digital Licensing Design Camp
DNA: DeoxyriboNucleic Acid
DSP: Digital Signal Processing
ELATED: Electronic Licensing And Technology Enabled Distribution
GAFA: Google Apple Facebook Amazon
HEC: École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Montréal
IMSG: International Marketing and Sales Group
IPO: Initial Public Offering
ISRC: International Standard Recording Code
ID: Identity Document
IP: Intellectual Property
ISP: Internet Service Providers
IT: Information Technology
LLC: Limited Liability Company
MLSM: Music Licensing Subway Map
MSL: MaRS Solutions Lab
NFP: Non For Profit
NMC: Nielsen Music Canada
NRCan: Natural Resources Canada
OCADU: Ontario College of Art and Design
OMDC: Old name of Ontario Creates
PGMP: Promote Good Metadata Practices
PKP: Pierre Karl Péladeau
SOCAN: Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada
SODRAC: Society for reproduction rights of authors, composers and publishers in Canada
TIFF: Toronto International Film Festival
TSX: Toronto Stock Exchange
UK: United Kingdom
ujoMusic: Website to discover new music
UQAM: Université du Québec à Montréal
WIPO: World Intellectual Properties Organization
YT: YouTube

1. Introduction

Music industry and copyright management: stakes and opportunities

Digital technologies have transformed our relationship to musical content. Consumers are able to play a favorite song on demand or pick from streams of music curated to their mood. Artists can release new music instantly and fans only have to wait seconds on their devices instead of hours in a line. With a swipe of a finger, digital platforms have made it easier than ever to enjoy music.

The Canadian music industry includes a wide range of artists and entrepreneurs who create, write, produce, publish and distribute original music. In 2014, total recorded music revenue (from physical, digital, performance rights and synchronization revenue sources) was $376.8 million. While total album sales in all formats remained virtually unchanged at 12.3 million in 2014, there were 10.5 billion on demand video and audio streams in the first six months of that year, which suggests streaming is now functioning as a key means of consuming music in Canada. And while three-quarters of total industry revenue is earned in Canada, SOCAN reports that the number of members who receive royalty revenues from outside Canada has more than doubled in the last ten years^{Footnote 1}. In short, Canadian music is going digital and international. How to manage that?

Similar digital disruptions have emerged and transformed taxi and accommodations, marketing and social media, and print and video media. In these long-standing industries, the new platforms have highlighted opportunities to re-envision old models. In the music industry, the seemingly seamless on-demand consumption experiences mask behind the scenes issues, including but not limited to:

Artist remuneration: There is a widespread impression of a gap existing between the high consumption of music and the access to compensation received by its creators. Since the 90s, the music industry has suffered a precipitous decline in revenue and has given rise to an era where every opportunity to capture a revenue stream matters.
Fragmented rights: A single piece of music has many layers of copyright, each associated with multiple rights holders. Those rights can be further split or transferred indefinitely. As a result of this fracturing, clearing the rights for a piece or catalogue of music can be arduous.
Difficult to track rights holder information: Canada's international obligations prevent the establishment of a comprehensive, mandatory public record of rights holder information. While there is a formal registration system run by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), it is not compulsory and exists alongside private registries. Even when rights holder information is available, the music industry suffers from "garbage in, garbage out" – circulating, incorrect or incomplete data, such that some royalties are paid incorrectly or not at all. Additionally, for content that is part of the public domain, there is not a reliable record for that which does not require licensing.

There is not only a clear need to improve the copyright system but also an opportunity to leverage digital technologies for the future of the music rights management. Advances in machine learning, API design, Blockchain and other technologies could innovatively solve industry issues, positioning Canada as leader in rights management in music licensing. There are reports of a 'rights tech' (i.e. the use of technology to transform music content sharing and rights protection or innovations in registries and ledgers) start-up cluster emerging in Canada.

Internationally, data and fragmentation issues have been outlined and examined by governments and industry repeatedly. The Canadian music industry recognizes this, and is making progress to find solutions through creative partnerships. These efforts have centred on improving the value content creators can receive for their work, and they point to a few further themes to explore:

Smarter tracking: How could rights management organizations increase their "listening" capacity? How can a song contain its origin story?
Greater transparency: How can a consumer understand the value chain better? Is music a static asset with a static value? How can an artist better see and understand the flow of their remuneration through the value chain?
Improved user experience: How could music licensing be seamless for all scales of users? How does the international nature of platforms influence the national nature of rights management?

Getting digital licensing right is crucial for the music industry, and requires many players (e.g. individuals with expertise in copyright law, collective management, the music industry, and software development, etc.) working together, in new ways. Just imagine: over 50 people gathered in one buzzing room full of creativity, envisioning the future of rights management, mapping the problem, brainstorming ideas, designing and prototyping solutions, working frantically in teams to be ready to present their solution to the panel experts. Welcome to Digital Licensing Design Camp.

Project overview

The Digital Licensing Design Camp aimed to engage stakeholders and users collaboratively using a creative design-led approach for developing practical solutions within the current legal framework. The Camp included two events: one hosted by MaRS Solutions Lab in Toronto on March 3, 2017, and a second hosted by Projektae in Montreal on March 7, 2017. Over 90 stakeholders, from artists to collective rights organizations to tech starts ups and government were brought together by invitation. Participants worked in teams to analyze problems, brainstorm ideas and develop solutions using design techniques. This report summarizes the key research findings and outcomes of the two events lead by MaRS Solutions Lab and Projektae.

This project was a partnership between the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.

2. Summary of outcomes

Sharing of expertise and activity

Through the Unconference Conference Sessions participants shared their expertise and lived experiences, and some also provided updates on relevant programs and activities. Together, this provided a state-of-the-art overview of what is being done to help modernize Canadian music right management. This allowed participants and policy makers get up-to-speed with the latest developments and experiences in the field. It clearly showed digitization is being recognized and explored in the field as a key lever for modernizing rights management. However, this is a complex, multi-faceted issue. Some of the presentations included:

The Music Licensing Subway Map (MLSM) by Canadian Heritage, a visualization tool designed to illustrate the layers of works, rights and licensing in the Canadian music industry.
CMRRA's Claims Portal: Closing the Repertoire Gap by Canadian Musical Reproductions Rights Agency, which was developed in partnership with SODRAC following a class action settlement for unpaid mechanical royalties.
Canadian Market Music Licensing Marketplace by Core Rights, SOCAN and Re:Sound, a single Blockchain-enabled digital licensing marketplace for the Canadian music industry that is launching in 2017.
Revelation: Leveraging Metadata for Remuneration by Mensana Change Management, where key Canadian music industry stakeholders came together in 2015 to work on enhancing royalty distribution models for neighbouring and reproduction rights in the digital age.
Évangeline by Association des professionnels de l'édition musicale (APEM), a music lyrics database used on Google, Google Play, Deezer, Shazam, Metro Lyrics, COPIBEC and other platforms.

A vision for the future of music licensing

Participants developed visions for the future of music rights management in 2020.The key themes that emerged were:

Future technologies or trends that would influence the music rights management industry. This included self-driving cars, hologram technology, audio identification, deep learning and artificial intelligence.

The success of the industry, represented through a wide range of intrinsic and extrinsic markers, including: fiscal access and growth, enrolment and attractiveness of music education programs, respect for the industry, and the number of digital subscribers.

Canadian leadership at the global level, represented precisely through the growth of Canadian-based organizations or partnerships and investment into the Canadian landscape.

Resolution of major issues that the industry is grappling with, such as fragmented licensing, the value gap, and metadata management.

500+ ideas

Participants generated over 500 ideas. These ideas showed a wide range of possible solutions. Through their discussions, teams found points of alignment and used those to select or combine elements into one final idea to pursue. The final idea had to address the challenge, adhere to their vision, as well as the needs of identified end users.

For many of the teams, the users that would see the greatest impact from the ideas were the artists, content licensees, platforms & distributors, and rights managers. Each of the ideas aimed to improve the music rights management experience for those users. From starting with ensuring that there is clean metadata and transparency of information, to streamlining the licensing process, through to developing robust digital tracking and reporting systems, and improving artist remuneration.

16 idea prototypes

Prototyping helps to develop ideas iteratively, from uncovering the core values underlying a concept to how they would work in the real world. Teams selected one idea to prototype. Then they created storyboards of the user experience of their idea. Using business modelling, participants also translated their idea into first plan for action. Finally, teams presented their solutions to a panel with various expertise as musicians, digital technologist, and entrepreneurs.

In total, participants developed 16 idea prototypes. The Toronto and Montreal events each produced 8. They are described and reviewed this report. Highlights include:

ELATED: electronic licensing and technology enabled distribution

"ELATED" aims to create a free-flowing licensing process so that new entrants requiring catalog licensing can get into the business of music more easily. It ensures the underlying data associated with a piece of music can be managed easily.

No data, no play

By requiring record labels and rights holders to provide data upfront before new music is released, "No Data, No Play" creates an environment where the correct artists and rights holders are paid on a timely basis, orphaned works are eliminated, costs can be reduced for all users, and revenues increased.

NOTES: the royalty exchange

"NOTES" is a royalty tracker app that eases rights registration online so that artists can benefit by investing in the global digital content distribution. Through the platform, users track their music use and artists track their music rights and payments, emphasizing speed and efficiency cross platforms and cross participant.

Orpheo

"Orpheo" is a one-stop shop for collective music rights management in Canada. This idea streamlines and centralizes the myriad of processes required for music licensing and encourages transparency for all rights holders.

Constellation

"Constellation" is a web application that captures moments through existing social media platforms, which then become a source for data management. The platform sets and helps index new metadata standards. The goal is to benefit from practices that are already in place, such as tagging, while getting improved remuneration for the artists and having greater transparency.

Jukebox 2020

A Shazam-type application, "Jukebox 2020" makes it easier to identify what music is played in which location. Even though a business pays a royalty to SOCAN and Re:Sound, rights management organizations have difficulty redistributing the royalties to the rights holders without their information. Jukebox 2020 offers a fairer distribution system.

Overall, the Design Camps illustrated that there are many opportunities to modernize music licensing, even within the current legal framework. Whereas most of these opportunities require sector-wide collaboration, many of the potential collaborators were in the room. With an upcoming parliamentary review of the "Copyright Act", the insights generated by the Design Camps can serve as useful inputs. However, this was not the intent or goal of this event.

Among the range of prototypes, there was as much overlap as distinct design, with individual prototypes that brought certain interesting and unique elements to the fore, such as voting, tagging, auctions, etc. Many prototypes complemented each other very well. Combined, they gave solid insights into what might be needed to effectively modernize music licensing through the use of digital technologies.

Co-design process

The process includes the following highlights:

New connections

The Design Camps format brings diverse players into the room. People with strong interests in the subject matter collaborate together and can create momentum towards fostering community around emerging projects. With the expanded expertise and knowledge from different industries, opportunities for new connections are possible, as was evidenced at the Toronto site in particular. Participants were able to find new inspiration by matching industry issues to the products being developed by technology companies. Despite maybe having some different motivations, the desired outcome to position Canada as a leader in digital licensing for the music industry was shared by all participants.

An (inter)active and creative engagement

The two Design Camps were highly (inter)active and creative. The convergence of ideas and solutions showcased the potential for great collaborations between participants. At the end of a full day of co-design the room was still full of energy and the participants had a unique experience. This clearly showed there is much potential for the Canadian government to engage in new ways with stakeholders.

3. Approach

Design principles

Change does not happen in an instant. When a new idea is introduced, people and organizations have to take up new thinking and change their behavior. People and institutions have to build the capacity to welcome and apply new solutions. Design and systems thinking approaches help people understand challenges from different perspectives and creates space for experimentation through a rigorous process. Through a design-led approach, participants are taken on a journey to understand, co-create, and prototype solutions together. By combining diverse perspectives and a hands-on approach, design practices deliver new solutions that can generate stronger impact.

Design camp objectives

The goal of the Digital Licensing Design Camps was to modernize copyright management, with an emphasis on technological opportunities. The event was designed to catalyze innovation, address the needs of both rights holders and users, and spur the maturation of a rights tech industry in Canada. To do this, the Digital Licensing Design Camps principles were to:

Bring together a variety of stakeholders in a non-traditional, collaborative environment, to help spur industry-wide, scalable solutions in the public interest;
Provide better common understanding of the challenge;
Generate ideas that could help modernize copyright management using technology and leveraging private sector initiatives, ultimately nurturing a 'rights tech' sector;
Produce practical solutions in the form of prototypes that have undergone preliminary reviews of their desirability, feasibility and viability (in strategic, technological and commercial terms).

In order to prepare the Digital Licensing Design Camp several activities have been undertaken. A quick summary:

Stakeholders meetings

Canadian Heritage organized workshop events in Montreal and Toronto to receive feedback on their Music Licensing Subway Map (see description in 'Unconference Sessions', page 13) from rights holder and collective rights organizations. At these meetings, Canadian Heritage presented a schematic map of the music copyright system, capturing the process well, and also demonstrating the potential complexity for users and regulatory pain points in the process. Stakeholders responded to the map with suggestions for further improvement, and described initiatives and efforts they were undertaking with external organizations to address some of the problems. MaRS Solutions Lab and Projektae used these meetings to identify potential issues that could drive the agenda, and to introduce themselves to key stakeholders. This opportunity to better understand the stakeholder perspective created a shift to focusing the event on positioning Canada as a leader in music rights management.

Toronto meeting findings

In Toronto, there was agreement about the digital future of music but perspectives varied as to what the issues were and who would be needed to lead solutions. Some organizations focused on the role of the Copyright Board to set down competitive regulations for new music distribution models. Others highlighted the importance of widening the scope of distribution to include internet service providers, a primary enabler of digital music consumption.

Another organization reported that they could not confirm a correlation between the increasing popularity of platforms and remuneration issues. They suggested that online music distribution was proving to be additive rather than competitive with traditional models. As their perception of the issues was less focused on what other organizations needed to do, they saw this as an opportunity to take a collaborative approach and improve the system by involving new partners, such as technology providers.

Montreal meeting findings

In Montreal, the meeting surfaced a difference in the perception of the issues between Anglophone and Francophone music markets. Representatives of the Francophone music industry felt it was under threat because of the dominance and proliferation of Anglophone music through streaming platforms and other online distribution models. In addition, the Anglophone market was perceived as having a different structure from what was presented as the "Quebec exception: a nation in a nation". Some stakeholders called for the government to make more of an effort to protect artists and support Francophone music in the digital age.

Other concerns arose around the perception of the music industry by the general public. Powerhouse musicians and performers like The Weeknd, Justin Bieber or Drake are generally accepted as proud examples of Canadian music successes, but do not completely represent the Canadian music industry and even less so the Quebec music industry. The view was that there was a misconception about artists earning significant sums of money through online platforms and that communication would be ''key to debunk those myths".

Some stakeholders in Montreal argued that copyright management was not actually very complex for most end users. They suggested that those who were asserting complexities of the system were doing so in order to bargain for lower fees (where they are set by the Copyright Board).

User interviews

MaRS Solutions Lab and Projektae researched identified concerns and interviewed stakeholders to help frame issues and the user experience as they related to copyright management modernization. Over a dozen individuals in Toronto and Montreal representing rights management organizations, artists, content licensees, and others were interviewed.

Highlights of this research include:

Excitement in being at the forefront of a rights tech cluster focused on the use of technology to transform music content sharing and rights protection or innovations in registries and ledgers
Long standing issues in the existing system of difficult to track rights holder information, desire for greater transparency
Despite various existing and new solutions, the industry lacked universal methods

Taken together, these preliminary findings signaled an opportunity to re-envision Canada as a leader in music rights management. This forward- thinking ambition became the focus for the design of the following workshops.

In order to envision the future of music rights management, it would be key to generate new thinking. Fostering an environment for such forward thinking requires inclusion of multiple perspectives; users with lived experience and those embedded in the technology and entrepreneurship communities might help focus solutions towards the needs of people within the system. Such inclusion also foregrounds opportunities for new collaborations and partnerships.

User archetypes

Using the Canadian Heritage Music Licensing Subway Map in conjunction with the research conducted by MaRS Solutions Lab and Projektae, several user types were identified by their common licensing behaviours and presented to participants as a tool to focus on user needs.

These include:

Artists

Songwriters, composers and performers

Publishers and producers

Those who manage, promote, and collect royalties in exchange for some portion of a creator's rights. They can also have their own recognized rights in a sound recording.

Content licensees

Film makers, video makers, radio shows, game developers, DJs, and more

Events & spaces

Festivals, venues, events, restaurants, retail space, and more

Platforms & distributors

Broadcasters, streaming platforms and more

Rights management

Rights holders groups, collectives, and more

See the full list of User Archetypes in the Appendix.

Agenda

To address the objectives effectively, three phases were identified for the one-day Design Camps:

Phase 1: Setting the stage & envisioning the future

The first phase of the event focused on setting the stage through participant presentations that showcased the need for copyright modernization and the innovative initiatives already in action. These informal presentations, also known as Unconferences, helped to identify the experience of the participants in the room and inspire teams to envision the future of music rights management.

Phase 2: Generating ideas & prototyping

The second phase was about getting into action. Participants brainstormed ideas that would help them achieve their envisioned future and developed prototypes rapidly to optimize particular user experiences. Teams iteratively developed their final idea, allowing them to think through and improve it, surfacing early evidence/factors for potential success.

Phase 3: Business model & pitch competition

The final phase of the event was business modelling and a pitch competition. The idea is operationalized using a visual business model template. This is key to elaborating an idea's value proposition, thinking through implementation and consider scalability.

The business models were the basis of the pitches. Teams presented to a panel of experts. In return, these experts offered suggestions and comments from their perspectives as users, entrepreneurs, and technologists.

See the full Agenda in the Appendix.

Participants

To achieve the right balance of representation across rights management, users, technological and legal expertise, a variety of stakeholders were invited. These included artists, collective rights organizations, the publishing and recording industry, music users from different communities that license music for other media (i.e. music supervisors), tech start-ups in rights management technology, and academic and legal experts. Participants at each event were split into 8 groups, with each group represent a diversity of stakeholders.

In Toronto, 51 participants convened on Friday March 3, 2017 at the Chelsea Hotel for a day-long, action-packed event. In Montreal, the Digital Design Camp was held on March 7, 2017, at the Montreal InterContinental Hotel with 41 participants.

See the full Participant Lists in the Appendix.

4. Phase 1: Setting the stage & envisioning the future

The first phase of the event focused on providing context for the need for copyright modernization and showcasing the innovative initiatives already in action. Participants were invited to make presentations about their challenges and their solutions, which provided the framing and goals for the day. It also created an opportunity to form a common understanding of the user experience in music rights management, share the work of the participants in the room, and inspire teams to envision the future of music rights management.

Unconference sessions

Participants were invited to present their lived experiences in an informal exchange of information and ideas. This Unconference offered an opportunity for participants to share and learn amongst each other, get a better sense for developments in the field, acknowledge existing work, and build towards a common understanding of the issues.

Participants were invited to submit short presentation topics that would take place in three (3) rounds with three (3) concurrent breakout sessions each. Presenters were selected in advance of the event but the call was open to all attendees. Unconference style dictates that participants will choose the sessions they wish to attend on the day of and may move between sessions as they choose. Presentations were 15-minutes in length, standing room only, and low-tech (no projectors, screens or AV provided). Presenters were able to use their own laptop screen, printouts, or other creative means to share their work, but were primarily encouraged to facilitate discussion about their topic.

Descriptions of the unconference presentations, as submitted by the presenters, follows:

Toronto unconference sessions

Music licensing subway map

Ian Dahlman, Canadian Heritage

Presentation of a visualization tool designed to illustrate the layers of works, rights and licensing in the music industry.

CMRRA's claims portal: closing the repertoire gap

Caroline Rioux, Canadian Musical Reproductions Rights Agency

CSI's claims portal was developed by CMRRA and SODRAC following a class action settlement for unpaid mechanical royalties. It is a business and IT solution to manage royalties for unidentified musical works and rights holders. The portal signals a new standard in music licensing that promotes greater transparency for all parties. Coupled with CMRRA's online licensing, invoicing and royalty distribution data and processes, CMRRA's portal and new IT system can benefit digital users and rights holders alike.

Now that music is all digital, it's time for licensing and royalties to catch up

Jeff King, SOCAN

SOCAN's view of where the digital music licensing landscape is heading, and what we are doing to ensure that we can continue to get artists and rights holders paid when their music is played. This includes responding to the forces of globalization; transforming our back office into a state-of-the-art big data platform; working to ensure that licensees have access to the rights that we represent in a clear, transparent and efficient manner; and improving the meta data environment so that the money that licensees pay out gets into the hands of those who create the music that they use as quickly, accurately, and efficiently as possible.

A personal story of music licensing insanity

Rob Johnston/Alan Cross

I have nearly 800 episodes of The Ongoing History of New Music and I can't make them available for on-demand streaming. Here's why.

Internet algorithms and discoverability

Christopher Slaney, IN·spire, NRCan's Innovation Hub

Data is transforming society and culture. Much of our experience online is personalized based on what we click, view, like, share or listen to. Decisions about what you see or don't see are made by algorithms, which use that data to inform their operations. In music, data about listeners, the market, and content plays an increasingly important role in discoverability. As a result, new challenges and opportunities arise.

Revelation: leveraging metadata for remuneration

Hayo Haentjens, Mensana Change Management

Several key Canadian music industry stakeholders came together in 2015 to work on enhancing royalty distribution models for neighbouring and reproduction rights in the digital age. Through understanding best practices from around the world, analyzing independent processes at each stakeholder and engaging with technology firms that are currently servicing the distribution of digital content and metadata, Project Revelation is setting the stage for seamless and world class royalty distribution.

Path to decentralizing digital licensing

Ethan Wilding, LedgerLabs

An overview of how we can decentralize digital licensing by using public Ethereum smart contracts to manage royalties and rights. ujoMusic will be used as a case-study.

Nielsen music and the world of metadata

Paul Shaver, Nielsen Music Canada

Topline overview of Nielsen Music capabilities including our annual Music 360 consumer study, Metadata warehouse (artist, title, label, ISRC, Year etc.) & how metadata interacts with our measurement platforms including BDS Radio and Music Connect. If song is purchased, played or streamed Nielsen has the DNA to tell you when, where and with what partner.

Canadian market music licensing marketplace

Jim King, Core Rights

Core Rights, LLC, a Fin-Tech and Rights-Tech services company is partnered with SOCAN and Re:Sound to build a single digital licensing marketplace for the Canadian music industry. Core Rights is building an exciting solution for the general music licensing needs in Canada as well as in the USA and in other countries. Blockchain-enabled, single platform for multi right licensing, and using other key technologies, Core Rights will deliver the first launch of this digital marketplace in 2017.

Montreal unconference sessions

Canadian music licensing subway map

Ian Dahlman, Martin Simard, Canadian Heritage

The subway map is a visualization tool for illustrating the different types of rights for a song and the related licensing processes in Canada.

Évangeline

Jérôme Payette, Association des professionnels de l'édition musicale (APEM)

Évangeline is a music lyrics database used on Google, Google Play, Deezer, Shazam, Metro Lyrics, COPIBEC and other platforms.

A new Canadian platform for digital licenses

Martin Gangnier, Ré:sonne/Re:Sound

Re:Sound and SOCAN, in partnership with Core Rights LLC, have developed a digital portal that will simplify and make the licensing process more efficient for music users. The portal will benefit their respective rights holders at the same time. This solution will use several innovative technologies and the prototype will be launched in Canada in 2017.

Changing ecosystems: who (what) must change?

Josée Plamondon, consultant

This unconference covered three main issues: 1) digitalization and the change in uses versus collective rights management organization mandate; 2) protecting creation, new content/players, business model preservation, using new licenses; 3) a debate on how to remain relevant in a digital context.

Blockchain and digital licenses

Pascal Ngu Cho, DigiiBit

The thoughts and actions around how decentralized technologies can answer the current needs of content creators.

The claims process for unlicensed, or partly unlicensed, works in Canada

Joël Martin, SODRAC CMRRA

A presentation on the process for works used by the three big recording companies (Sony BMG, Warner and Universal) using a website developed by CMRRA-SODRAC Inc. This process allows rights holders that are not represented by SODRAC or CMRRA, and whom have not been contacted to obtain a license or that neglected to issue one at the time that the product was marketed, to consult the website and to make a claim if ever one of their works is found. This whole process results from the regulation on pending works that took place in Canada over the past years.

Visioning tool: Hill Valley Telegraph

Each participant team created a vision of their desired future for the Canadian copyright system and digital licensing. Teams used the MaRS Solutions Lab Hill Valley Telegraph tool to become their own editors of a newspaper in the year 2020.

This tool helped teams envision imaginative futures by describing how licensing in Canada is transformed with digital technologies. Teams presented their vision back to the room in the form of a fictional headline with an image, short news articles, an editorial title, "Entertainment" article title, "Legal & Tech" article title, and advertisements. After the presentation of each team's Hill Valley Telegraph, several themes emerged around anticipated future trends, markers of industry success, indicators of Canadian leadership, and key industry issues.

Future trends

Both events made references to future technologies or trends that would influence the music industry rights management included self-driving cars, hologram technology, audio identification, deep learning and artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and brain-reading.

Figure 1: First edition of Hill Valley Telegraph

The photograph depicts the front page of a fictional newspaper entitled "Hill Valley Telegraph." Hand-drawn images and text are arranged on the page under the headline "Music Now Highest Paid Profession."

Directly below the headline there is a hand-drawn image of a Canadian flag, accompanied by music notes and dollar signs.

Along the side of the article, features the following sections and descriptions:

Entertainment: Hologram concert all the rage!

Legal and Tech: Artists paid in real time

Editorial: the power of total transparency

At the bottom of the article are 3 short news article titles that describe the success of the Canadian music industry in that time, which are as follows :

Imagine there was a time when we worried about money in Canadian music

Canadian rights tech company buys apple

Canadian copyright registry embraces blockchain

Beside the short news articles are 3 headlines from the future, which are as follows:

Artists from around the world flock to Canada

IMSG gives top award to Canadian music

MRO efficiency at all time

Headlines in Toronto

"Streaming revenue peaks because of self-driving cars: end of traffic copter radio reports cited"

"Self-driving cars should have music subscriptions"

"Are holographic performers better than humans?"

"Hologram concert all the rage!"

"Playlists that use internet of things to recommend music based on activity and mood"

"New Bose brainphones recommend new music based on brainwaves"

"Google Ear TM Surpasses iPhone Sales"

"Audio Fingerprinting Tames Internet Wild West"

"Shazam in Public Spaces Means Big Money for Creators"

"Siri replaces Copyright Board"

"Sirius implants from space to your brain!"

Headlines in Montreal

"The Bank of Canada authorizes ''Renés'', Céline Dion's new cryptocurrency"

"Popular: Brain implant music - New revenue"

"Blockchain is a reality: an open digital music DNA"

"Hologram Technology: Have a drink with Drake"

"Artificial Intelligence changes the Canadian music industry"

Success of industry

In Toronto, the success of the industry was represented through a wide range of intrinsic and extrinsic markers that included: fiscal access and growth, enrolment and attractiveness of music education programs, respect for the industry, and number of subscribers and revenue growth.

In Montreal, the success of the industry was linked to the consumption of fair trade music and end consumers wanting to pay for music, but also with streaming platforms and internet service providers supporting local music.

Headlines in Toronto

"Music industry value doubles again"

"Streaming Services hit goal of 250M Paid subscribers"

"Music now highest paid profession"

"University Music Programs Exploding"

"Music Industry innovations a model to emulate"

"Survey: Respect for copyright hits all-time high in key 18 to 25 demographic"

"Music Artist Buys Toronto Home - 1st in Decade"

"My song was played in Slovenia this morning and I'm using the royalties at Alo tonight." - J Writer

"Music Creators get paid faster"

"Artists now getting paid in real time"

"Digital Music Services Offer Better Value to Consumer Than Piracy"

"Paid-For Music Sounds Better"

"Payments to creators reach an all-time high in digital market"

Headlines in Montreal

"Streaming music turns a profit"

"Survey: music users (finally) want to pay"

"Most Canadians listen to fair trade music!"

"The arts and culture budget exceeds the national defense budget"

"7% of the federal budget go for the arts"

"Culture represents 10% of Canada's GDP"

"8 Quebecer artists in the Canadian Top 10"

"A new Quebec platform attracts 5 million subscriptions"

"Content users, build your license with a few simple clicks!"

"SIMPLIFY, the new system that automatically records copyrights"

“Artists are paid better, creation of a one-stop shop for all music copyright associations in Canada”

"Spotify launches Quebec Music Week"

"Spotify is dead, long live the new Spotify"

"Netflix reveals the results for its live music service"

"Bell launches its ALL CULTURE package"

"Videotron: The First Internet service provider to concede 1% of its revenues to content creators"

"Spotify, Google and Pandora hire SOCAN to distribute global royalties"

"Service providers contribute a record amount to the digital fund"

Canadian leadership

In Toronto, indicators of Canada as a leader in the industry were much more specific. They were identified through the growth of Canadian-based organizations or partnerships and investment into the Canadian landscape.

In Montréal, Canadian leadership was demonstrated mostly by the Government of Canada or by Quebec introducing new legal changes (including quotas or discoverability obligations from the streaming platforms, Internet service providers, and main GAFA Internet players) and releasing new budgets to increase nationalisation.

Headlines in Toronto

"Music industry jobs grow in Canada due to more investment in musicians"

"CND Rights Tech Company buys Apple"

iHeartRadio #1 "I win."

"Global digital content distributors IPO launches on TSX"

"Canada new haven for music artists from around the world"

"Spotify, Apple, Google sign onto C.O.D.A"

"Spotify opens server farm in kitchener-waterloo thanks to government relaxing tax rules: $3Billion injection to local economy"

"President Beiber trumpets blockchain tax credit successes"

"IMSG gives top award to Canadian music"

"Artists from around the world flock to Canada"

Headlines in Montreal

"Nationalised music, the next step?"

"What is Canada waiting for to put tools in place?"

"Revision of Pro-creator law confirmed!"

"Canada becomes a legal paradise for artists: copyright law forced to adapt to new technologies"

"Government eliminates the YT exception!"

"Fair remuneration for artists - Internet service providers forced to pay $400 M."

"Quebec agrees with the 3 main platforms to create a Quebec category."

"Canada must be a discoverability leader."

"Canada in the lead for its discoverability index, pushing revenues by 30%."

Figure 2: Canadian boat at Montreal

The picture demonstrates a person drawing a boat with a skull flag, with a music note in the background, with a maple leaf at the corner. At the corner of the page is the description, "The pirates are leaving Canada!"

"PKP creates a $15 M music fund."

"Creation of the first Canadian alliance to help manage multiple rights."

"Tax on online music brings $100 million to creators."

Key industry issues

In Toronto, some of the articles also brought to the forefront the key issues with which the industry is grappling, such as fragmented licensing, the "value gap" between what licensees are willing to pay and their perceived real market value, illegal downloading and metadata management.

In Montreal, similar issues arose as in Toronto. Here, participants also included both the local scope of representability and the international scope of legal actions possible in the United States, consolidation of GAFA conglomerates, and the disappearance of existing players in the industry.

Headlines in Toronto

"One world, one license solution: brings big bucks from business"

"Value Gap Finally Bridged Between Content Creators and Providers"

"Canada becomes global leader in metadata management"

Headlines in Montreal

"Spotify settles class action suit in the United States."

"Spotify bought by Google."

"The end of royalties not distributed in Canada."

"The revenge of local artists."

"Readers' Corner: I love Quebec music, but where is it?"

"Legal offer is more popular than illicit offer (+10%)."

"End of pirating in Canada!"

"Blockchain creates a catastrophic world for publishers and producers."

"Several layoffs, aggregators close their doors."

Figure 3: Second edition of Hill Valley Telegraph

The photograph depicts the front page of a fictional newspaper entitled "Hill Valley Telegraph." Hand-written images and text are arranged on the page under the headline "Artists Better Remunerated: Creation of a unique ticket window for all music management in Canada"

Directly below the headline, is a hand-drawn image of a violinist playing the violin with dollar signs as eyes, and dollar signs coming out of the violin rather than music notes.
Along the side of the article, features a section for Entertainment, Legal and Tech, Editorial and advertisements which are as follows:

Legal and Tech: "Copyright on computer-generated works: who has the right?"

Entertainment: "Tour of the virtual single Evangeline debuts tonight!"

Editorial: The Copyright Board: is it always necessary?

Advertisement: We recycle your MP3

At the bottom of the telegraph, the group made up 3 important quotations that describe the new century:

"Creative industries are leading the development of the economic in Canada" – Minister Bains

"Jobs at risk, this is what a unique collective society brings !!!" – An aggregator

The first car with equipped sensors that adapt the music choices to the mood of the driver

First year without copyright litigation

Beside the short news articles, cascading from top to bottom, are descriptions of the following headlines:

Majority of Canadians consume fair trade music!

"Several layoffs; aggregators close their doors"

The tax on online music reports that $100 million has been reversed to creators

5. Phase 2: Generating ideas & prototyping

The second phase was about getting into action. Participants brainstormed ideas that would help them achieve their envisioned future and took one idea through a rapid-prototyping exercise. Teams iteratively developed their final idea. While thinking through and improving ideas, teams surfaced early evidence/factors for potential success. To begin ideation, participants started with identifying the users that would see the greatest impact from their vision and describing their experience and needs.

Ideation

The participants engaged in an idea generation exercise to help them brainstorm individually and collectively. Using the future-forward articles they had identified in the Hill Valley Telegraph tool as goals, each team member wrote down 10 ideas that would result in the outcomes of the articles. In total, they generated well over 500 ideas. Each table was then asked to select only 5 of those ideas by determining if the idea helped realize their vision and which user archetypes would be see the greatest impact from them. Participants mapped these ideas on a grid, which allowed them to identify themes, outliers from their collective ideation and where the group's points of strongest interest were. They were asked to rapidly prototype their concepts through discussion, helping to develop the ideas into practical solutions that aim to modernize copyright management.

Through their discussions, teams found points of alignment and used those to select or combine elements into one final idea to pursue. The final idea had to address the challenge, adhere to their vision, as well as the needs of identified end users.

Figure 4: Ideation period

This image depicts post-it notes and pens scattered on a table.

Ideation in Toronto

For many of the teams, the users that would see the most impact from their ideas were the artists, content licensees, platforms & distributors, and rights managers. Each of the ideas aimed to improve the music rights management experience for those users, from starting with ensuring that there is clear metadata and transparency of the information, to streamlining the licensing process, then developing robust digital tracking and reporting systems, and improving artist remuneration.

"Royalty tracking accounts personal software integrations"

"Easing rights legislation online"

"Artists can benefit by investing in the global digital content dis."

"Streamlining composer/publisher data at record company level (i.e. metadata not released until publisher/songwriter signs off)"

"Better/cheaper tools for all rights holder to track royalties"

"Deep learning data correction"

"Users can obtain either blanket licenses or buy individual work"

Seeing that one of the first steps was metadata collection and management, some teams also came up with ideas around the security and implications of creating and accessing these data pools:

"Tax imposed for corporate collection of citizen data"

"Address privacy and other concerns w/ data mining - decisions need to be made about how far platforms will go with user data"

Figure 5: Team's board of its ideation for Digital Licensing

This image illustrates a board of ideas recorded on post-it notes and a man observing the work.

Ideation in Montreal

For most teams, the ideation phase automatically focused on one or two target users. For a few teams, the ideation phase focused on the impact on several users. Some participants added consumers and Internet service providers (ISP) to the list of users. Overall, participants had developed ideas that would most impact artists, rights managers, platforms and distributors, and ISPs.

"End of Copyright Board of Canada deadline: Developing an economic model that sets the value of music and the flat rate for all use."

"Quebec platform: Using existing platforms and having them transferred by local players."

"90% of revenues paid to 5% of rights holders."

"Artists partner with Spotify, Stingray and Steam."

"Internet providers fight against pirating."

"Single management organization with single rate and specific division managing the Francophone repertoire."

Prototyping

Teams were asked to select just one idea to prototype. Participants mapped these ideas, allowing them to see any themes or outliers from their ideation and where the points of strongest interest were. Each team brought forward one idea for prototyping and shared them with the room as follows:

Final ideas in Toronto

A digital music licensing bazaar — instead of creating a one-stop shop, we provide a central market space where users can engage through technological means while maintaining their rights to choose.
A one-stop shop — the idea of an extended collective one stop shop; all rights and ownership data is there and represented.
Plan to look at data at 1) the point of origination, and 2) the point at which it gets released to the record company.
"Magic Platform" — facilitate music licensing by enabling users.
A centralized rights marketplace — potential for not just music, but other things like books too.
Legislative change on two fronts: 1) the copyright act and 2) the copyright board — help enforcement compliance to force the data to be cleaner and front-sourced, and target compliance issues from large to small users.
Royalty tracker app — users track their music use, and allow artists to track music/payments, to emphasize speed and efficiency.
Have assets that uniquely identify rights holders of a piece of music.

Final ideas in Montreal

A one-stop shop for requesting authorization — rather than using several intermediaries, create a one stop shop to cover all licensing requirements.
Promote good metadata practices — goal is to create a structure and a platform promoting the visibility of local content.
Education and rights — help the users and allow the public to be better educated.
A one-stop shop for collective music rights management in Canada — merging collective management to simplify user tasks while reassuring them of the legality of their music use.
Maximum visibility of local artists — federate the partners and make agreements with the Web music platforms to collect existing data, such as album information, concert dates, etc.
Set a metadata standard and facilitate its indexation — ease the data access while capturing the present moment.
Declarations of songs played in concert — an application to determine which piece is played in order to correctly distribute the royalties to the rights holders.
Increase local content visibility on global platforms — encourage cultural identity and membership, ensure diversity in digital broadcasting, allowing local artists to be showcased.

Prototyping helps to develop an idea iteratively and describe how it would exist in the real world. This was done through storyboarding the user experience of the idea. Teams presented their storyboards in combination with their Business Model Canvases in Phase 3.

Figure 7: Final ideas putting on paper

This photograph depicts a group member writing their idea onto a worksheet, while there are papers and pens dispersed across the table.

6. Phase 3: Business model canvas & pitch presentation

The final phase of the event required teams to develop a business model for their idea and to present their idea in a pitch format. Business modelling is also a form of prototyping. It helps to think through the business model of an idea, which is key for determining how an idea would be implemented and potentially scaled. Often this type of prototyping is left out, which means you end up with some great ideas that might not be implementable. The event closed with a pitch, where teams presented their ideas to a panel of experts who offered the perspectives of users, entrepreneurs, and technologists.

Business model canvas

Looking at the business model is of particular relevance when the goal is to promote private initiatives and/or start-ups. In that sense, this part will also contribute to building a right tech cluster.

The Business Model Canvas was originally developed by Alex Osterwalder to help startups think through their business model. It is an alternative to a business plan, and offers a structure for entrepreneurs to think about the different aspects of their business. It is used by millions of people around the world. MaRS Solutions Lab has developed a Systems Change Edition of the canvas. It is used by participants to translate their selected idea for solving a complex challenge into an intervention. This idea-prototyping exercise encourages people to flesh out key elements of their idea and create a first plan of action, while at the same time assessing the desirability, feasibility and viability of the idea.

Teams produced a detailed work plan around their identified ideas. This started by defining the impact that they wanted to make on the larger system when this idea would be implemented on a large scale. Then teams identified the users their solution was targeting and what value proposition their idea was providing to them. From that, teams moved on to describe what was needed to make the idea happen in terms of activities, resources and partnerships. Finally, teams had to describe what type of costs were connected to realizing the idea, and what type of revenue could cover these costs. Altogether, this canvas provided a quick feasibility test for teams, surfacing potential opportunities and barriers to realize the idea. It also gave a first description of their idea as an action plan, making it easier to follow-up after the event.

Figure 8: Ready to present our work

This photograph illustrates worksheets displayed on a board with the following headings; users and customers, value proportion, systems change, revenue and streams and cost structure.

Expert panel

The expert panels were structured to represent the various expertise relevant to digital licensing – lived experience as artists, innovation supporters, cultural representatives, entrepreneurs, designers, and technologists. The experts brought their respective perspectives to their feedback on the prototypes. However, no member of the panels was an expert in music copyright.

Experts in Toronto

In Toronto, the critiques emphasized the user, client and challenge goal, and focused less on specific technical constraints. The experts helped to clarify any assumptions about what the presented design is intended to do, or what kind of experience it is intended to create. They also provided a generative lens to the conversation by speaking to alternative explorations of the prototypes.

If it suited the goals of the design, they pointed out situations, sequences, or elements within the design that may be problematic given what they knew about the users that teams were designing for, the scenarios involved, or the challenge goals.

The Toronto panel experts were:

Sal Patel

Lead, Digital Engagement Producer at TIFF

Eliane Tozman

Head of Design, Innovation at IBM Canada Research and Development

Ben Whiteley

Bass Player from Toronto who has played with Sarah Harmer, Basia Bulat, The Weather Station, Raffi, Fred Penner.

Jon Worren

Sr. Director, Entrepreneurship Programs & Entrepreneur in Residence at MaRS

Experts in Montreal

The panel of experts in Montreal used a similar framing as the prototypes presented during the Toronto event. However, the experts were also asked to provide specific feedback on three points: the innovativeness of the prototypes, if the prototypes answered the identified issues and the target users' needs, and the feasibility of the business model.

Here are examples of guiding questions they could ask themselves:

"How does the proposed project use new technologies?"

"How does the proposed project solve the initial problem?"

"How does the proposed project answer the user requirements?"

"Was the team able to clearly explain their project and its practical implementation?"

The Montreal panel experts were:

Tiberius Brastaviceanu

Co-founder of Sensorica.

Noor Elhuda El Bawab

General Manager at District 3 Innovation Center

Monique Fauteux

Artist/Musician

Figure 9: Expert's meeting

This photograph depicts a group of people sitting around round tables, writing and discussing the display boards that are placed around the room.

7. 16 Prototypes

From the Toronto event, 8 prototypes were produced. The prototypes leveraged smart contracts, chatbots, all-inclusive licenses, existing social media behaviours, and free market dynamics. The different ideas for how digital technologies could create easier ways for a variety of end users to interact with music rights management could be summarized through three activities: data capture, exchange platforms, and asset management. There are clear overlaps and complementary ideas, but in each case, not just one but multiple digital solutions are needed and they should connect to each other to define real success.

Prototypes in Toronto

ELATED: Electronic Licensing and Technology Enabled Distribution

"ELATED" aims to create a free-flowing licensing process so that new entrants can get into the business of music more easily. It ensures the underlying data associated with a piece of music can be managed easily.

User experience

The "ELATED" online portal begins by offering the distributor user (e.g. Spotify, iTunes, etc) a choice of French or English language and a registration page. Once an account is created the users selects what kind of business model subscription they are interested in: ad, free trial, local caching, etc. They will then select from a usage model checklist of on demand streaming, digital downloads, streaming radio, ad supported streaming, etc. Some variable options will include elements like lyrics trial length (7day, 1 month, 3 months), offline use, a family plan, or telecommunications company subsidized. Once the user has made their selections, the system will determine what kind of licensing the music usage would fall under. The system would provide the user a smart contract with pricing that will indicated the different opt-in and outs available. Users will have a dashboard to track the number of new licenses they have, which are compulsory, what they have opted in and out of, and rights holders will be notified of these changes. The platform would charge either a commission, transaction fee or initial deal processing free to the user.

With a huge influx of new services and companies expanding into music, there is a need for efficient licensing to create a viable market. "ELATED" aims to increase the money available in music and to rights holders by creating an all-inclusive contract to lower a number of barriers to entry. It will see more money for rights holders and content creators, produce a massive reduction in licensing procurement and management costs, and see greater legal certainty and transparent payments. This idea will require the establishment of licensing boundaries and data standards and management services to be available.

Observations

"ELATED" offers a dual-sided exchange platform with a particular focus on the licensee and lowering the barriers for them to find and track the appropriate licenses for their use. The all-inclusive contract simplifies the experiences significantly and masks the complexity of licensing from a user who would be unfamiliar with it.

The Magic Place

"The Magic Place" is inspired by the real-life story of someone trying to license Pharell's song "Happy", where the licensee was unable to figure out who owned it. Cue Alexa the chat bot to facilitate a dual platform for artists and customers.

User experience

"The Magic Place" uses Alexa the chatbot to help people quickly license music. First asking "Who are you? What do you want to use music for?", the user can then respond with their specific circumstances - "I am a corporation, I want to make a video using "Happy" for my company conference." Alex would recognize the use on a business premises, sync licenses and offer a blanket license. Alexa responds with "We have some quotes for you! $500 yes/no", but could also offer that "We have some alternatives. How much do you want to pay?". A range of options within an articulated range would then be made available where rights holders have the option to set a variable price range or offer to negotiate. Alexa would also offer options along the way, "Here is what is available: options of format mp3, wav or mov" or indicate a Canadian artist. Alexa would then offer a payment sequence with credit, Paypal, debit before being able to download the audio file and license. "Thank you! Song owners have been notified & paid" and a similar sequence would occur for artists, labels, or management rights organizations with individual and enterprise level accounts. "The Magic Place" would be commission-based so that it profits only when the rights holders do and/or it could offer an annual membership fee from enterprise customers. Advertising could also be integrated for revenue or it could be sold as a white label service to other jurisdictions.

TUNED

"TUNED" is a one-stop shop for license authorization requests allowing collaboration among several music industry parties and government representatives. The solution solves the current problem and frustration facing users when they have to deal with several intermediaries to use a piece of music. "TUNED" therefore proposes a primarily online one stop shop with data shared by linking the sub-sets of data from the different players.

User experience

Music users start by connecting to the one-stop shop Web platform to request permission to use the music. They then enter information to start identifying the desired piece of music. The platform then starts a specific identification process using its predictive system based on a series of questions and answers provided by the user. The work or item for sale is then almost instantly identified, where all the data from rights management organizations were shared beforehand. This data is then presented to the user in a uniform, simple, exhaustive, and very quick manner. A rate is given at this step specifying the conditions for obtaining the license. In addition to the online platform, the user can choose to be served either in person or by phone. "TUNED" then issues licenses transparently to the music customers, who have all the information they need and are satisfied with the accelerated licensing process. "TUNED" gets its revenues from start-up financing and from ongoing support from the Government of Canada. The platform itself would earn additional revenue from licensing after the management organizations have set-up a projects office in the pre-launch phase that would develop a governance model and business rules for data and revenue sharing.

Observations

"TUNED" essentially targets the small music industry players by simplifying the current system for providing data by creating a clear protocol for clear communication among the data. A simple request allows the platform to license quickly while ensuring the exhaustiveness of the data, and better coverage and application of rights. Emergent models perceiving art as a shared good or "shareable" allow us to reflect more on the platform, although they do possibly put the project's premise into question.

PGMP

"PGMP (Promote Good Metadata Practices)" is an online repertoire that integrates metadata in a systematic, long-lasting and invariable manner. The goal of this project is to promote local content and give a societal dimension to projects by increasing the current diversity of music offered in Quebec and Canada. "PGMP" solves the visibility problem that local players share and also solves the traceability and music content remunerations problems.

User experience

Any person who would like their work to be stored in the repertoire visits the online platform and uploads their work. They are then charged a fixed price. The rights can then be licensed or even sold. Since all the metadata is stored on the centralized system, the availability of works and sound performances in the online repertoire is continually expanding and regularly updated. In addition to the fixed cost to upload each work, the financial stability of the project depends on support from the government, from rights management organizations and from collecting user fees. The feasibility of the project also depends on a consensus in Quebec about a shared message that identifies main selling points and cooperation with GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) Internet giants and other streaming platforms before global implementation of the project.

Observations

The "PGMP" premise is to centralize as much as possible in a time where technologies and social collaboration movements push to decentralize. The Blockchain technology would be interesting for managing the systematic, long-lasting, and invariable design aspects of the project. That means that the information available for decision-making has to be decentralized, only then industry stakeholders can decide on how they wish to interact with final consumers.

"Jukebox 2020" is inspired by musical works identification technologies (like Shazam) that allow the music's title, writer and performer to be identified when the music is being played. As the usage is different from this of existing technologies (ie track music rather than entertain), the web application can also determine how music consumption in public spaces is perceived by the general public and the locations that broadcast the music in order to ensure that the proposed solution is culturally acceptable. For example, what are the acceptance and resistance factors among a new generation of listeners?

8. Conclusion

The two Digital Licensing Design Camps clearly showed the potential of digital technologies to help modernize music licensing in Canada. Digital technologies could intervene at various points:

From a very early stage of the problem in capturing metadata properly at the start by mimicking photo tagging, making it the labels responsibility, or submitting standardized information
Managing metadata by centralizing the information and making it accessible across users and platforms
In the extension of a song's life, where the piece of music acts primarily as an asset and the rights holders and/or its value changes over time

From the 500+ ideas and 16 idea prototypes that were produced over the two events in Toronto and Montreal, some key themes emerged that could steer policies and actions for years to come. The main conclusions that can be drawn are:

Improve the user experience

Music licensing is a very complex and multi-faceted exercise. The main focus of digital licensing should be on how digital technologies can create easier ways for a variety of end users to interact with music licensing and lowering the barriers for them to find and track the appropriate licenses for their use. The user archetypes provide a helpful start in this regard.

The key to success, however, is not just digitizing licensing in its existing form. It is about re-designing and simplifying the experience significantly so as to mask the complexity of licensing from a user, enabling them to interact with the system more easily. Developing simple contracts, building a one-stop shop, developing new business models, and applying a user-centered approach will be essential. Another element in improving the user experience is education of users. Informing and educating them on music rights, and deconstructing myths around licensing, are important to help make digital licensing work. One interesting observation was the group's focus on mobile devices as main channel of delivery, harnessing a dominant technology and piece of equipment that people interact with on a regular basis.

Empower the artist

The second key objective of digital music licensing is to increase remuneration for artists and to empower the artist. While digital technologies radically increase opportunities for consumers to enjoy music, the challenge of the event was how to use digital technologies to ensure artists get paid what they deserve.

This is of particular importance to smaller and more local artists who have less capacity to manage their rights, but for whom getting paid is extraordinarily important. Several ideas were specifically aimed at helping them be more visible and empowered.

This means capturing relevant data and metadata in order to track rights holders and the use of music, making it easier to manage and enforce rights, and allowing more flexibility in the way music rights are managed. Improving asset management should therefore be a key objective.

Finally, empowering artists is not only about money. Some ideas gave artists more say in how their music was being used. For instance, having rights holders vote digitally whether or not they would allow their work to be used in an advertisement. Given the complex nature of multiple rights holders, digital technologies can be beneficial in managing this.

Inter-operability of ideas & data

It was interesting to see many of the ideas and prototypes complementing and supporting each other by targeting different stages of music rights management on a continuum of music creation to music circulation. It is clear that there is no single magic bullet in digital licensing. Any policy or strategy should be aimed at digitization of the sector at large, not developing a single digital project.

There were prototypes focused on the early stages of correctly capturing the relevant data of rights and rights holders. This would not only increase the chances of rights holders receiving appropriate remuneration, but also help eliminate or bring down the number of orphan works. Other prototypes could offer exchange platforms to obtain music licenses from rights holders, where another set of prototypes would ensure good tracking and reporting of the ways that licences and pieces of music were being used.

Special attention should be given to ensuring inter-operability of data. In the likelihood of having multiple digital solutions being developed for different purposes, a key success factor will be if the same data can be used within different systems.

Increase transparency

The question of transparency of information in the chain of rights holders remains an issue in the music industry. Many of the ideas identified increased transparency as one of their desired outcomes, both for the end user and artist. The desire for transparency goes hand-in-hand with the opaqueness of a complex music licensing process. Simplifying the process could help to temper these concerns.

Solving the data problem

Several ideas focused on solving the problems around data, such as creating accurate metadata, getting clean data, orphaned/unclaimed works of music that cannot be properly attributed and therefore remunerated, etc. They introduced playful and fun elements, like mimicking photo tagging, to help generate data and/or improve the quality of rights data. The management system for the data was also brought up as a key concern, where Blockchain technology could provide an interesting means to maintain the systematic, sustainable and unalterable aspect of the metadata.

Digital exchange platforms

Many prototypes focused on creating digital exchange platforms that could make it easier to obtain and manage music licenses. They came in different variations, with varying business models and/or ways of delivery. A more thorough analysis, and perhaps a combination of elements presented, could prove to be valuable in determining what would form the basis for a true one-stop shop solution.

Setting the price

Several prototypes used digital technologies to help set the price of a license. Some ideas offered opportunities to discover musical works that fit within a desired price range. Another group posed the idea of auctioning off rights like eBay, where licensees and rights holders could easily negotiate a price (within certain limits).

Some conclusions on the process

Based on the discussions, some other interesting observations on the process can be made:

Many of the presented ideas required mainly the people in the room and their collaboration, but not necessarily legislative change.
In Montreal, it was clear that the Government was perceived as a key player in enabling change and mostly as a funding source for the different solutions. In Montreal, those solutions showed a little less focus on market and private sector opportunities and more focus on the involvement of the government. This observation strongly echoes the observations made at the stakeholders meeting in Montreal prior to the event.
Ideas were also not all about the technology, but the ability to tell the story of how digital licensing solution might change the experience, which should be the focus of the industry's attention and efforts.
Making digital music licensing work was about ensuring that future-forward solutions are designed within the realities of both the current cultural context. Solutions designed to specifically fit the needs of an Anglophone market may exacerbate the issues within a Francophone market. Again, detailed user research and archetypes across the country are crucial to finding solutions.
Having this grasp of reality should be combined with a clear vision of a desired future for the music industry in Canada. Some prototypes showed that the implementation of that vision could be achieved through communication with and education of end users on the value of licensing itself for the music industry.
Some of the prototypes clearly overlapped, while each of them brought certain valuable unique elements. Many prototypes complemented each other very well. Combined, they gave a good insight into what is needed and possible to effectively modernize music licensing through the use of digital technologies.

Recommendations

At the conclusion of the Design Camps, discussions with the partners of the project and with stakeholders of the music industry led to the formulation of four recommendations for government about the design process and future avenues for increasing the impact of the Digital Licensing Design Camp:

Consider the digital licensing design camp in perpetual "beta" mode

By thinking of the first Digital Licensing Design Camps as prototypes themselves, consider them in a "beta" mode where the intention would be to improve and iterate on it using insights from the Design Camps.
Further develop the user archetypes and explore additional tools, such as journey mapping, to engage in a deeper research phase, and incorporate learnings from the Design Camps towards the design and programming of future Design Camp models.
Keep enabling participants, mentors, and panel experts to measure their own experience and to reinforce the positive successes and impacts of the Camps and their resulting prototypes.
Prototype new aspects of the Design Camps each year. It is important that the Digital Licensing Design Camps renew its formula each year to ensure an active participation from artists, other stakeholders of the music industry, and startups. And perhaps even to work on specific incentives in which each community can participate.

Develop a strong ecosystem of partners around the Digital Licensing Design Camp

Continue to develop a partnership approach with the tech startup community, university incubators, music users as well as developing (stronger) ties with the business investor community.
Deepen knowledge about the motivations and needs of each target community to highlight and communicate the aspects of the Design Camp that interest them to ensure their increased participation.
Connect with existing innovative projects, specifically in the music industry but also in communities of practice that face similar challenges of copyright modernization.
Create a network of mentors from different backgrounds ready to question and also support the design of new prototypes during events and thus help create stronger prototypes.
Continue an approach based on an inclusive dialogue with both Anglophone and Francophone communities.

Keep a focus on the needs of artists

Always include and keep in mind the experience and context of artists and music creators as their needs evolve with the emergence of new technologies.
Develop the Design Camp as a tool to support the interests and needs of artists.
Provide an open space for experimentation so that artists can tangibly get involved in creating innovative solutions for the music industry and copyright modernization that directly affect them.

Communicate with and educate both stakeholders of the music industry and end consumers (the general public)

Continue to document the process of designing and experimentation around the Digital Licensing Design Camp (initial challenges, issues, approach, problems, solutions, etc.).
Share this report and create a conversation around the tools used in the Design Camps with other players of the music industry so that they are empowered to develop a similar process and share their own prototypes to contribute to the community.
Keep all participants and those interested in digital licensing informed on the follow-up of the project.
Educate the general public (music end consumers) on the current process and on why it is important to have that conversation with them and in Canada.

9. About

MaRS Solutions Lab

MaRS Solutions Lab (MSL) helps solve complex challenges that require systems change. We help to understand these complex challenges from different perspectives using design and systems thinking. We convene stakeholders from across society (e.g. governments, corporates, NFPs, foundations). We support them to co-design, develop and test new solutions. And we build capacity for systems change through training and advice. Our clients and partners include governments (at all levels), foundations, not-for-profits, community organizations, corporates and academia.

MaRS Solutions Lab is part of MaRS Discovery District (MaRS), one of the world's largest urban innovation centres, cultivating high-impact ventures and equipping innovators to drive economic and social prosperity in Canada. MaRS supports entrepreneurs in the areas of information technology, cleantech and healthcare by providing them with advice, education and market research, and connecting them to talent, customers and capital. An independent registered charity, MaRS also works with private and public sector partners to create solutions that generate social impact. MaRS Solutions Lab can leverage the wide expertise and networks of MaRS.

Joeri van den Steenhoven, Director - MaRS Solutions Lab

Joeri is a global expert on public and social innovation labs with extensive experience in running labs and advising on them. He co-founded Kennisland, one of the oldest leading social innovation labs in the Netherlands and Europe, and led it for twelve years. He also worked for the Young Foundation and Nesta in the UK. Since 2013, he has been leading MaRS Solutions Lab and bringing his lab experience to Canada. Joeri has a Master's Degree in Political Science from the University of Amsterdam, where amongst others he studied the role international organizations to create telecommunications standards that helped grow the development of the internet.

Vanessa Toye, Senior Associate, Design & Innovation - MaRS Solutions Lab

Vanessa is a design and systems thinker eager to catalyze change and create deep impact. She designs collaborative and engaging experiences to generate innovative and impactful ideas for some of society's most complex problems. Her projects at Solutions Lab have included regulation for the sharing economy, urban mobility innovation, and digital music licensing. As an enthusiast of food and design, she organizes community events in support of food justice issues, consults on marketing and growth strategy in the food industry, and develops restaurant concepts and brands. Vanessa established her approach to design in the Industrial Design program at OCADU after a career as a Mechanical Engineer.

Projektae

Projektae is a social innovation agency and lab based in Montreal. With our services and projects, we are also connected to the world. Our agency uses methodologies of collaboration and communication to help organisations, the public sector and individuals to develop initiatives that create social impact.

Projektae provides advice, trainings and conferences on:

Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Communication and Crowdfunding for Impact

Collaborative Design

With the lab, Projektae experiments in vivo solutions that propel, accelerate and inspire social innovation, with the collaboration of citizens, social entrepreneurs and both the public and private sectors. Projektae developed a co-creation methodology: Lab Café-Projet. We also incubate social start-ups such as Zebrea, an online media on social innovation and Inkoso, an online crowdfunding knowledge platform and accelerator.

To reflect our social entrepreneurship DNA, Projektae is a non-profit organization.

Laurence Bakayoko, M.Sc., DESS - Director and main consultant for Projektae

Laurence is a consultant and social innovation researcher. Before founding Projektae, she worked for 10 years in Europe, Africa and Western Canada as a researcher and consultant in the international development and fair trade sector in addition to the private sector for the group The Economist. She created a model presenting the collaboration-communication processes of social innovation projects at HEC Montréal's research centre on social innovations. She is a radio reporter reporting on social technologies and innovation at CIBL and Radio-Canada and a Global Shaper alumni at the World Economic Forum. Laurence holds a graduate degree in management, a Masters in International Business and has followed several doctoral seminars in social innovation management at HEC Montréal.

Lalaina Rabemananjara, M.Sc. - Project leader, Projektae

Lalaina participates in design projects involving users in the anthropological research and social communication phases. She is also in charge of Web marketing of some of Projektae's special projects and events to help our partners connect to their beneficiaries and to promote their stakeholders' important issues. Lalaina has 5 years' experience as a project leader in communications and in community development. She has a Masters in Management, specializing in marketing from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).

10. Appendix

Page details

Date modified:: 2019-07-16

Digital licensing design camp

Co-designing solutions to modernize music licensing

On this page

Table of figures:

List of acronyms and abbreviations

1. Introduction

Music industry and copyright management: stakes and opportunities

Project overview

2. Summary of outcomes

Sharing of expertise and activity

A vision for the future of music licensing

500+ ideas

16 idea prototypes

ELATED: electronic licensing and technology enabled distribution

No data, no play

NOTES: the royalty exchange

Orpheo

Constellation

Jukebox 2020

Co-design process

New connections

An (inter)active and creative engagement

3. Approach

Design principles

Design camp objectives

Stakeholders meetings

Toronto meeting findings

Montreal meeting findings

User interviews

User archetypes

Artists

Publishers and producers

Content licensees

Events & spaces

Platforms & distributors

Rights management

Agenda

Phase 1: Setting the stage & envisioning the future

Phase 2: Generating ideas & prototyping

Phase 3: Business model & pitch competition

Participants

4. Phase 1: Setting the stage & envisioning the future

Unconference sessions

Toronto unconference sessions

Music licensing subway map

CMRRA's claims portal: closing the repertoire gap

Now that music is all digital, it's time for licensing and royalties to catch up

A personal story of music licensing insanity

Internet algorithms and discoverability

Revelation: leveraging metadata for remuneration

Path to decentralizing digital licensing

Nielsen music and the world of metadata

Canadian market music licensing marketplace

Montreal unconference sessions

Canadian music licensing subway map

Évangeline

A new Canadian platform for digital licenses

Changing ecosystems: who (what) must change?

Blockchain and digital licenses

The claims process for unlicensed, or partly unlicensed, works in Canada

Visioning tool: Hill Valley Telegraph

Future trends

Headlines in Toronto

Headlines in Montreal

Success of industry

Headlines in Toronto

Headlines in Montreal

Canadian leadership

Headlines in Toronto

Headlines in Montreal

Key industry issues

Headlines in Toronto

Headlines in Montreal

5. Phase 2: Generating ideas & prototyping

Ideation

Ideation in Toronto

Ideation in Montreal

Prototyping

Final ideas in Toronto

Final ideas in Montreal