Merlin Network
| Non-profit | |
| Traded as | Merlin Network B.V |
| Industry | Digital Licensing |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Headquarters | The Netherlands/United Kingdom |
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
|
Key people
|
Charles Caldas (CEO) |
| Website | www |
Merlin Network is the global digital rights agency for the world's independent label sector, with a membership accounting for more than 12% of the global recorded music market. It was established to allow digital services the opportunity to globally license – via a single deal, instead of hundreds of individual local deals – commercially successful independent music labels from across the world.
Launched in 2007, after the appointment of current chief executive Charles Caldas, the organisation now has over 700 members from 42 countries. It also represents more than 20,000 independent labels and aggregators worldwide, including Beggars Group, Domino, Epitaph, !K7, Kobalt Label Services, Marquee Music Group, Merge, Ninja Tune, PIAS, Secretly Group, Sub Pop, and Warp.
On their behalf, Merlin has licensed digital services including SoundCloud, YouTube Red, Spotify, Pandora, Google Play, Deezer, Vevo, KKBOX and Guvera, and reached copyright infringement settlements with, among others, Limewire, XM Satellite Radio and Grooveshark.
The organisation operates on a non-exclusive basis, and its stated remit is to “enhance the value of our members rights in deals that cannot be easily negotiated locally or individually, or are not covered adequately by existing arrangements.”
Merlin is owned and controlled by a not-for-profit foundation, supervised by a member-elected board of 15 individuals - five each from North America, Europe and Rest of the World. The current chairman is Beggars Group founder Martin Mills.
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Wikipedia