Amsterdam-based DJ Monitor, a music identification and rights monitoring startup, announced on Friday, September 30, that Japanese company AlphaTheta Corporation has acquired a 25 per cent stake in the company.
AlphaTheta manufactures and sells products from Pioneer DJ and its associated brands, including KUVO, a service which was launched in 2014 and aimed to assist with the fairer distribution of royalties to electronic music creators and rights holders globally.
AlphaTheta has been looking for innovative methods to help the industry improve royalty distribution as KUVO has grown, and the company’s investment in DJ Monitor demonstrates its dedication to this cause.
Brief about DJ Monitor
Founded in 2005 by Yuri Dokter, DJ Monitor claims to be the global market leader in monitoring electronic music. The company has developed tech-driven end-to-end services that enhance accurate music usage reporting and improved royalties for artists.
The company’s services cover music festivals, nightclubs, venues, broadcasts, and online streaming events. It is a preferred supplier of established ollective management organisations in Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and Africa.
Since 2020, DJ Monitor has also facilitated the live streaming of physical events, integrating online and offline experiences and offering services that cover monitoring, online transactions, and international licensing.
Speaking about the partnership, founder Yuri Dokter, says, “Having pioneered club and event monitoring through music recognition technology since 2005, DJ Monitor has become the de facto standard for collective management organisations around the world, pushing transparency by providing auditable data. With club music embedded in our DNA, our partnership with AlphaTheta will create the most credible and robust system to maximise electronic music creator incomes.”
Aim of this partnership
The purpose of the partnership between AlphaTheta and DJ Monitor is to collect and enhance the data from music played on Pioneer DJ hardware. Insights may then be shared with certain industry partners to enable more precise royalty payments to music producers and to provide clubs access to additional information about the music played at their establishments.
AlphaTheta President and CEO, Yoshinori Kataoka, says, “Music creators are at the core of the electronic music community, so it’s absolutely vital that they get paid when their music is played publicly. Fair royalty distribution enables artists to keep making music that DJs want to play and audiences want to hear.”
Kataoka adds, “At AlphaTheta Corporation, we’re passionate about using our technical expertise and global reach to support music creators. It’s a natural fit for us to partner with DJ Monitor, a company that shares our vision and determination to ensure artists are paid fairly. We look forward to working closely with them on the development of KUVO, among other exciting projects.”
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