A must read Hypebot guest post by Keith Bernstein, Crunch Digital Founder that reprises the important themes he raised in his inspirational presentation at the invitation-only closed-door meetings on music-tech solutions held last fall.

The best solution is a direct licensing service that connects digital music services with music publishers, which would allow streaming services to effectively and efficiently obtain the licenses they need and make sure they have all the data they need to report royalties –  this will help shield them from future problems. Such a licensing service would act as an administrator to the digital streaming service and as an agent to the music publishers and songwriters  – and be able to update song ownership information, essentially functioning as a back office to make sure everything was running smoothly. Currently, Crunch Digital has built a database of a majority of US music publishing copyrights that are in use among digital services and they keep their data fresh with updates coming from the music publishers they work with.  As an independent company that is not tied to a trade organization or a PRO, Crunch is in a position to provide a direct licensing solution for streaming services that will work for all parties involved.

Read it all here: “We Know Compulsory Licensing Is “Broken” – Here Is How To Fix It“