BMG launches royalty app co-designed by songwriters

BMG’s new royalty app provides more personalised information than before.

It provides current period (pipeline) royalty information and highly intuitive analytics to give clients insights to their earnings by song, country and source, as well as trends.

Data for recording clients will be added by the end of 2017.

The iOS and Android app is based on BMG’s royalties portal MyBMG 3.0, which went live in March.

The app saw BMG’s technology team work with a number of its song-writing clients, including Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics, Grammy-nominated Jenn Decilveo (Andra Day’s Rise Up, Cody Simpson’s Got Me Good) and Broadway composer Maury Yeston.

Project leader Anke Becker said, “It was a very different experience to the usual process of software development.

“We were working hand-in-hand with songwriters trying to tease out exactly the information which is most important to them and then ensuring we present that data in as accessible a way as possible.

“The result we believe is the most user-friendly royalties application on the market.

“We wanted to not only make the product the most transparent, but also make the process of creating and innovating the product transparent and inclusive.”

Dave Stewart added, “This is a great tool and a wonderful move forward towards helping songwriters understand where they stand, something that has been badly needed since the dawn of copyright.

“I am proud to be part of the BMG family making steps towards a better future for creatives and leading the way in fair trade for artists.”

BMG says the idea of the app is to empower its clients.

Sebastian Hentzschel, its SVP Group Technology stated, “MyBMG is the centrepiece of our drive to empower songwriters by giving them the information they need to manage their careers.

“The introduction of the mobile app is just a natural continuation to our unrelenting effort to service our artists with the transparency and fairness they deserve.

“We are going to continuously push out new, amazing features in the coming months and years.”