Songtradr CEO Paul Wiltshire knows the music industry inside and out--because he’s made a serious run at it from almost every side.

His teen years were spent playing in bands around his hometown, Melbourne and producing tracks in his bedroom. These years of honing his production and writing skills paid off. Paul’s first big breakthrough came when he got the chance to work on Australian star, Vanessa Amorosi’s, record-smashing debut album. From here, Paul went on to work with numerous chart-topping artists, ‘Downunder', as well as international stars such as The Backstreet Boys.

“I had to learn quickly about all the various rights I was involved with, which previously had not really felt tangible to me,” he recalls. “Over the following decade, I had a very intense production career. I wrote or produced on a large number of albums and singles, which included 12 #1s and about 25 top 40s."

Paul built a wildly successful career, but was constantly frustrated with the business side, battling hard to find opportunities in a fragmented industry. “I started to realize that the business had many problems. I’d receive my royalty statements and feel perplexed,” says Wiltshire. “One statement from my PRO with thousands of entries, similar statements from my publishers and endless statements from record labels, often with contradictory information. It felt like a big mess, badly lacking transparency.”

Wiltshire, joined by his wife Victoria, also a music professional, felt they could do more. They expanded their production business to include artist management as well as a label and publishing division and set out to carefully cultivate a handful of talented artists. Wiltshire says, “We ambitiously morphed our production business into a 360 degree offering, signing four or five artists and developing our own content.” They could see the writing on the wall when the digital revolution razed the existing business anatomy. “The industry was changing rapidly and to survive, we needed to control our destiny,” he says. “We faced major challenges trying to develop commercial artists in Australia where the market had shrunk and we made plenty of mistakes!”

Wiltshire eventually sold to a larger company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange where he spent several years on their board of directors and in an executive role. He discovered and developed new skills and talents, dealing with a larger staff and many complex issues across a number of new business areas. It was challenging work, but Wiltshire felt he had something more he needed to do.

“Always at the back of my mind were the massive problems of our industry,” recalls Wiltshire. “Having personally suffered the difficulties of monetizing and accessing music rights buyers as well as tracking royalty income, I decided there had to be a way to solve these issues while making things a whole lot easier for music rights buyers!”

Inspired by the “anything is possible” mentality, Wiltshire moved to California.

Wiltshire set out to create a one-stop platform for rights management, licensing, distribution and collaboration. He wanted to remove the friction and improve the transparency and speed of transactions. It was the genesis of Songtradr.

For Wiltshire, the Californian start-up energy felt refreshing for someone launching an ambitious new project in a crowded, confusing space. The smaller size and the remoteness of the Australian market limited returns on effort, yet Wiltshire credits his Aussie background with some of the skills that have helped him succeed in the States and in music tech. “We have this notion of the Aussie Battler: the ordinary, working-class individuals who persevere through adversity and battle through each day with tenacity,” he remarks. “It teaches a certain work ethic!”

“Songtradr is a comprehensive system for managing your music, connected to a global licensing marketplace, the kind of platform I longed for as a producer/songwriter,” Wiltshire explains. “You can upload your entire catalog and connect to any of your collaborators, such as songwriters or publishers who co-own your music. Once connected, the music is in a clearable and portable state, so that it can easily be licensed or distributed. Our system allows users to add the important objective and subjective metadata tags that are crucial for search and discovery, as well as the complex administrative data that connects fractional rights holders and expedites the collection and remittance of royalties. You can also upload any related files such as instrumentals, remixes and stems which are linked to the original composition. All in one place, all very clear.”

That dedication and hard work were necessary to tackle the many facets and challenges inherent in pushing a new platform and model forward, in a legally complex field. “Our most limited resource is almost always time, because there’s no shortage of good ideas on how to improve our service and site,” Wiltshire reflects. “Most of the obstacles we’ve faced have turned into breakthroughs in terms of our technology.”

This fresh perspective and resultant technology means easier rights management, improved ability to find and license music for sync, and a growing set of features to support rights-holders as they strive to make the most of their assets. “To some extent, we see ourselves as connecting the world of rights in one place, an ambitious goal,” comments Wiltshire. “As we grow, in addition to the many thousands of artists and composers, record labels and publishers are also jumping on board. The ability to do business in terms of the mobility of rights will only get easier.”

Songtradr responds to the needs of traditional players in the business, but also works hard to serve emerging artists and songwriters, who are on a journey Wiltshire is very familiar with and wants to nurture. “When looking back 15 years or so and considering how much equipment and costs were associated with producing releasable music, it’s amazing what can be done now,” remarks Wiltshire. “A great recording used to cost thousands but today it can be done using a laptop and a pair of headphones. Songtradr is playing into that growth and independence and I believe young artists WANT independence. They don’t necessarily want to rely on a label or publisher. We are giving them the tools to be able to manage their rights as well as access all levels of the media and entertainment industries”

ABOUT SONGTRADR

Songtradr was founded by Producer/Songwriter Paul Wiltshire and developed by music industry professionals who share a vision to redefine the value of music. The company solves transactional difficulties associated with licensing, buying and selling music rights as well as providing creators, owners and buyers successful business tools. It provides an intuitive, simple and free content management system where music assets are stored, discovered, curated and monetized. Users have complete control and are empowered with flexibility to run their businesses their way. Using Songtradr’s proprietary search and variable licensing pricing technology, music supervisors, brands, filmmakers and other creatives can now acquire rights directly from sellers, who include some of the world’s best composers, producers, songwriters, artists, bands, publishers, labels and rights estates.

Since launching March 7, Songtradr’s licensing platform has welcomed over 6,000 artists, songwriters, and composers, as well as established labels, publishers, and production music libraries as content partners and clients. Songtradr’s team is actively matching the flood of submissions with makers of films, TV, video games, and ads in the global marketplace. Users have signed up from more than 50 countries, uploading thousands of tracks each week, making Songtradr the most geographically diverse music licensing marketplace in the world.

“We had approximately 350 new users sign up each week during March and since our keynote presentation in April at MUSEXPO, thousands more have joined,” explains Songtradr CEO Paul Wiltshire. “It’s very exciting.”

Songtradr’s sponsorship of MIDEM (June 3-6) should prompt another tidal wave of international partnerships. There, Wiltshire and team will showcase the platform’s free content management and comprehensive metadata system, variable license pricing, and the platform’s  continually updated wanted listings—what Wiltshire describes as “a solid map of what, historically, has been a very fragmented and confusing space.”

Songtradr’s expert curation appeals to music supervisors, editors, production companies, and creative agencies, as well. They can explore catalogs using Songtradr’s search function or get concrete, spot-on recommendations from the curation team led by Michelle Crispin, who has 20 years of experience in licensing and A&R.

With the influx of clients, Crispin makes sure all metadata is in order and every rights owner is properly paid. Wiltshire embraces this daunting but essential task, saying, “Misinformation pollutes the process and leads to incorrect accounting and missing income. We’re creating a clear chain of title, a comprehensive tree of ownership around copyright and master ownership at an authorship, ownership, and control level.”

The international reach of Songtradr’s growing stable of users is striking: from English Emmy nominated composer John Robert Wood to French composer Vermair, to the rich music catalog of The Times of India. Cleopatra Records, Colemine Records, Obscure Magpie, and Music of the Sea have all signed up, along with a plethora of emerging artists as well as multi-platinum artists and songwriters (such as Jennifer Paige, Andy Goldmark, Trey Vittetoe, and Heather Holley, widely known for her collaborations with Christina Aguilera).

Songtradr allows creatives to determine the value of their own music using Songtradr’s proprietary variable license pricing system. This technology calculates a reasonable fee for licenses based on media, usage, territory, term, and other factors. These innovative features, along with the platform’s global reach are revolutionizing access for both creators and buyers, and explain Songtradr’s rapid growth. As Wiltshire says, “All are welcome!”

Meet the Songtradr team at MIDEM, R7.K12

ABOUT SONGTRADR

Songtradr www.songtradr.com is a global marketplace platform connected to a dynamic content management system where music assets are stored, discovered and monetized. Creators maintain complete control of their rights and are empowered with great tools to monetize their music. Songtradr is a non-exclusive platform for rights owners and receives up to 17.5% of any transaction, a much smaller fee than typically retained for music placements. Using Songtradr’s proprietary search and variable license pricing technology, music supervisors, brands, filmmakers and other creatives can now easily acquire rights from some of the world’s best composers, songwriters, artists, bands and catalogs.

Songtradr—the fast-growing global marketplace for music rights—will unveil its platform as a sponsor of MUSEXPO April 17 – 20. Billed as “The United Nations of Music”, MUSEXPO brings together hundreds of leaders in the worlds of A&R, management, music tech, traditional and online radio, social media, publishing and more, to connect and network. Attendees will get a chance to experience Songtradr’s inventive platform, which matches creatives with buyers in swift, online transactions, simplifying rights management.

“Songtradr has built a great platform that allows people to be creative and engage in commerce in an efficient manner,” comments Sat Bisla, founder and president of A&R Worldwide, which stages dozens of conferences around the globe, including MUSEXPO. “We’re all about giving people access to information and relationships to all touchpoints that connect people with music on both a local and international level. We agreed to have Songtradr showcase because they provide a unique perspective when it comes to the creative community and the world of synchronization.”

Only a month after its official launch on March 7, Songtradr is causing a stir by bringing on dozens of labels, publishers and production music libraries. With well over two thousand users and content partners already (recently signing up larger catalogs from all over the globe such as Times of India and Cleopatra Records), Songtradr is the freshest face among the event sponsors, which also include Capitol Music Group, RCA, Epic, and Columbia.

One distinguishing factor driving interest in Songtradr, is that the company only earns money when its clients do. Without any subscription fees, all customers get a streamlined content management system with unlimited content storage, connections with collaborators and co-owners, as well as personalized service from expert curators who help customize music for potential buyers. “We appreciate that it takes users time and patience to set up accounts and on-board catalogs,” explained Paul Wiltshire, CEO and Founder of Songtradr, “and in return we want to give them great tools at no cost.”

At the iconic Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, Wiltshire will deliver a keynote address about how Songtradr is changing the music rights landscape. He’ll describe the platform’s solutions to the fragmentation and confusion of the licensing process that continues to confound even experienced artists, labels, and agencies. Wiltshire says, “The Songtradr platform lets users actively participate in a global marketplace and rely on our streamlined technology for results. We’ve made it very efficient for buyers (licensees) to license and acquire rights, which we believe is key to unlocking value.”

ABOUT SONGTRADR

Songtradr www.songtradr.com was founded by award winning Producer/Songwriter Paul Wiltshire and developed by music industry professionals who share a vision to redefine the value of music. The company solves B2B transactional difficulties associated with licensing, buying and selling music rights as well as providing creators, owners and buyers with the tools they need. Songtradr is a global open marketplace platform connected to an intuitive, simple and free content management system where music assets are stored, discovered, curated and monetized. Users have complete control of their rights and are empowered with the flexibility to run their business, their way. Songtradr keeps a transactional fee of up to 17.5%, a much smaller fee than typically retained for song placements. Using Songtradr’s proprietary search and variable licensing pricing technology, music supervisors, brands, filmmakers and other creatives can now acquire rights cost-effectively and directly from sellers, who include some of the world’s best composers, producers, songwriters, artists, bands, publishers, labels and rights estates.

Employing the right digital-age experts can make or break any start-up in the online arena. When Songtradr—a consumer-friendly marketplace for music rights and content management, which launched March 7—found Erin Dillon to round out its 15-person line-up, the company scored big. Songtradr’s staff and advisory board include music biz heavy-hitters with long years of experience. But the most recent global recognition for a Songtradr operative went to 29-year-old Account Executive Dillon.

Dillon was surprised by an early-morning email one weekday in December saying the Guild of Music Supervisors had nominated her for Best Music Supervisor for a Docuseries or Reality Television Award. She had attended the Guild’s forums, but her role in the Sixth Annual Awards snuck up on her. Songtradr CEO Paul Wiltshire tells folks, “Erin’s in it for the music, not the prestige or the money…She has more credibility in our clients’ world than I do.”

That’s saying something, considering Wiltshire has won multiple international awards as a record producer and songwriter. He founded PLW Entertainment, a music production company later acquired by GoConnect. He produced and/or composed 12 number-one-selling records by the likes of the Backstreet Boys, Vanessa Amorosi, Human Nature, and Engelbert Humperdinck. Tom Callahan, Songtradr’s Chief Customer Officer, has promoted industry legends like Shania Twain, Lenny Kravitz, and Bonnie Raitt. And Songtradr’s advisors include Phil Quartararo, former CEO at Virgin, Warner Bros. and EMI, as well as attorney Gary Stiffelman, who has represented some of the biggest names in the industry.

As he assembled the Songtradr organization, Wiltshire could tell Dillon was perceptive and committed. “She’s all about the music and serving those clients,” he points out, “and about tirelessly seeking out talented craftsmanship.” For her part, Dillon simply says, “Music is on my brain 90% of the day. The other 10% is me thinking about food.”

The Guild of Music Supervisors nominated Dillon along with Joel C. High, CEO of Creative Control Entertainment, for Best Music Supervisor for the docuseries America’s Best Dance Crew All-Stars: Road to the VMAs. Also nominated were music supervisors of The Voice (who won), So You Think You Can Dance, and American Idol. In all, 16 music supervisors for films, TV, trailers, and video games won awards at the ceremony January 28th. Guild president John Houlihan told Variety, “The work of a music supervisor enhances the storytelling in all media forms, and our guild awards celebrate the creative achievements that have given billions of viewers a deeper experience over the past year.”

Providing deeper experiences through her wide-ranging musical tastes is what Dillon has prepared for her entire life. From a musical family, she began playing piano at five. The first cassette tape she bought was the Beach Boys, and her first CD was Jewel’s Pieces of Me. “After that,” she laughs, “Nearly every cent I made went to Tower Records until I was 18.” She loved Roy Orbison, Judy Garland, Led Zeppelin, and Depeche Mode—all juxtaposed with the ageless constant of Disney film scores. She minored in music at San Diego State University and still plays piano for pleasure. She’s compiled so many playlists for friends, a career creating playlists for multi-media buyers makes perfect sense.

Hers is a lesson in getting ahead via unpaid internships. In high school, Dillon wrangled one with her first professional mentor, DJ Liza Richardson at Santa Monica College alternative music station KCRW. Soon Dillon was coordinating with DJs and providing production assistance for KCRW. Next she interned at Format Entertainment, which connected music supervisors and artists with media projects.

From there it was a short jump to working at DreamWorks as assistant to Jennifer Hawks, head of music for live action films. Dillon recalls the thrill of laboring in the DreamWorks music department next door to fabled pianist, composer, and conductor John Williams, while he wrote Spielberg’s film scores. “Being around that incredible, historical amazingness was inspiring,” she enthuses. “And driving onto the Universal lot every day was a crazy, surreal dream.” From these adventures, Dillon learned “Nothing is a bigger turnoff than a bad attitude. At the intern/assistant level, you have to be hungry and willing to tackle any job no matter how big or small. You’re going to make mistakes and feel like an idiot, but if you want to succeed, you put your pride aside, laugh it off, and get to work.”

Dillon’s next great benefactor was High, who took her under his wing at Creative Control Entertainment. There she supervised music for projects attached to such big names as Trimark Pictures and Lionsgate Entertainment. Dillon said working on Tyler Perry’s films, Madea’s Witness Protection and Temptation offered insight into how a tight-knit team works together with complete trust and ingenuity.

Dillon and High had a ball supervising music for VH1’s America’s Best Dance Crew All-Stars: Road to the VMAs, which won them the Guild Award nomination. The competitive reality show pits dance crews from around the world against each other (judged by celebrities including hip hop superstar T. Pain, G.O.O.D. Music recording artist Tevana Taylor, and TV and Broadway performer Frankie Grande). She says she had to work “insanely quickly” to handle licensing and help dance crews choose music. The composers were District 78, wizards at producing dance remixes of recognizable hip hop and electronica. “It put me through the ringer,” confessed Dillon, adding, “TV music supervisors don’t get enough credit for finding the tone and quality within each episode while keeping to an overall thematic sound. You have to pour over what seems like endless numbers of tracks. But damn, it sounds and feels good once you’ve accomplished it.”

As to why America’s Best Dance Crew was nominated for the Guild Award, Dillon reasoned, “Joel and I bring our different ears together to find really unique music. And the geniuses at District 78 collaborated well with the dance crews—truly the most gifted dancers I’ve ever seen. Their combined, crazy talent was a thrill to watch on that stage.”

The best part of her current gig with Songtradr, Dillon says, is “listening to music all day long. Everybody pitches in, making playlists and sharing with each other.” Less fun is laboring to make contact with decision-makers rather than their voicemail and assistants. Dillon used to play gatekeeper for her employers, and she empathizes now that the tables have turned. “It’s a delicate balance,” she explains. “You don’t want to come on too strong, but you need to make your presence known. You have to give prospects space and understand the proper way to check in with someone without being annoying.” 

Exciting, new territory for Dillon is brainstorming ways to generate revenue for Songtradr, seeking new uses for its vast catalog in video games, apps, and other untapped markets. She enthuses, “I love that I’m here at an early stage, so I can grow with the company and help develop it.” She aims to align the Songtradr brand with the highest-profile song placements, she says, “allowing the quality of the product to speak for itself.”  Her life-long zeal for identifying and shaping that quality makes Dillon an asset on par with the globally esteemed gentlemen twice her age on Songtradr’s impressive team.

About Songtradr:

Songtradr was founded by Producer/Songwriter Paul Wiltshire and developed by music industry professionals who share a vision to redefine the value of music. The company solves transactional difficulties associated with licensing, buying and selling music rights as well as providing creators, owners and buyers successful business tools. It provides an intuitive, simple and free content management system where music assets are stored, discovered, curated and monetized. Users have complete control and are empowered with flexibility to run their businesses their way. Songtradr keeps a transactional fee of up to 17.5%, a much smaller fee than typically retained for song placements. Using Songtradr’s proprietary search and variable licensing pricing technology, music supervisors, brands, filmmakers and other creatives can now acquire rights directly from sellers, who include some of the world’s best composers, producers, songwriters, artists, bands, publishers, labels and rights estates.

March 7 heralds the launch of Songtradr, the new, consumer-friendly B2B platform that simplifies what’s complicated about music ownership and rights. The Songtradr team’s ambitious goal is nothing less than to redefine the value of music. It’s a one-stop shop for managing, licensing and selling music, simple and affordable enough for anyone to use.

“We see ourselves as connecting the fragmented world of music rights in one place,” explained Songtradr CEO, Paul Wiltshire, who aims to involve all potential partners in “an open and transparent marketplace.” As sellers, DIY music creators and artists are his initial target, though independent labels and publishers with larger catalogs are also welcome.

For example, the writer of a tune evoking effortless journeys under sunny skies may not want a label or publisher--he just wants to sell his song. He may not know how much his tune is worth and who might license or buy it. At the same time, an independent filmmaker needing a song for her road movie may not want to deal with labels and publishers. She may not know where to find a song about smooth highways in clear weather and how much to pay for it. Songtradr unites the tune with the film, the songwriter with the filmmaker. Buyers could just as easily be video game makers, brand advertisers, or YouTubers. Songtradr seeks to level the playing field for everyone.

Users are finding Songtradr’s proprietary variable pricing calculator to be an astounding feature that helps songwriters, artists and rights holders determine market rate price points. License rates are automatically generated by factors such as media usage, budget, term and territory. Buyers, especially, can operate more efficiently thanks to the transparency of the system.

Another distinct benefit is that Songtradr empowers and incentivizes human matchmakers to help filter and curate music for carefully targeted audiences. The super-simple content management system (with unlimited free storage for music files in the cloud for any user) allows composers to collaborate and companies to manage extensive inventory. If an artist seeks a publisher or label, Songtradr’s catalog management can help with that too. Whether the listener is a label rep in LA, an advertising creative in NYC, or your mom in Miami, they can find songs for all types of weather and terrain.

“Youth wants independence,” believes Wiltshire, so he’s motivated to help songwriters and artists keep control of their creations and careers. He knows from experience. Wiltshire started writing music at age 16 in Melbourne, Australia, and by age 27 he was making a living at it. He has since written, mixed, and/or produced twelve #1 selling records and 28 Top 20 albums/singles, with over 15 million units in sales. He contributed to multi-platinum hits by the Backstreet Boys as well as Australians Human Nature, Vanessa Amorosi, Delta Goodrem, Guy Sebastian, and many others.

Though he used several publishers, Wiltshire always felt it was up to him to secure opportunities. “I started to see the business side of the industry had some major problems,” he said. Music publishing in particular had perplexed him. “It’s a highly complicated and fragmented industry, where one piece of music can have numerous identifiers, depending on who owns or represents master recordings, publishing rights, performance rights, and more, with so much room for error. There had to be a better way to connect all the pieces.”

Wiltshire’s career experienced a few bumps through stormy economic conditions. He learned how to navigate first hand, by running production, publishing and management companies. He dreamed of a swifter way to access, monetize, and account for music rights. Finally, in 2014, he found a team in the U.S. to build what has now become Songtradr.

Among the experts assisting with development is Phil Quartararo, former CEO at Virgin Records, Warner Bros. and EMI. Another key advisor is attorney Gary Stiffelman, who has represented and negotiated very innovative deals for many of the most prominent recording artists, songwriters and producers in the world. Stiffelman has also represented several companies in ground-breaking catalog-wide, new media licensing arrangements with the major music labels and film studios. Tom Callahan is Songtradr’s Chief Customer Officer, whose experience in promotion includes work with Shania Twain, Paula Abdul, Lenny Kravitz, and Bonnie Raitt.

In its Beta stage, the platform has already had songwriters, performers, publishers, and record companies uploading music. Wiltshire says, “It’s an easy jump from other platforms and we’ve aimed to make it feel like you’re using professional audio software. We’re very proud of our audio playback which we believe is the fastest on the web!”

Songtradr’s full-time sales team has extraordinary relationships in the film, trailer, television and advertising world and will work around the clock for those seeking music for any project. Buyers can either go straight to the platform to find what they need or have one of Songtradr’s team find what they need for them.

Wiltshire’s ethos values quality over quantity. Songtradr’s curators keep musical standards high, while its tech team upholds Songtradr’s functionality as a professional tool. It doesn’t feel like a website. It feels like what it is, personalized interactions in an exciting marketplace, where making, sharing, and monetizing music is easier and faster than it’s ever been.

About Songtradr

Songtradr was founded by Producer/Songwriter Paul Wiltshire and developed by music industry professionals who share a vision to redefine the value of music. The company solves transactional difficulties associated with licensing, buying and selling music rights as well as providing creators, owners and buyers with the tools they need. It provides an intuitive, simple and free content management system where music assets are stored, discovered, curated and monetized. The platform is non-exclusive and users have complete control and are empowered with the flexibility to run their business, their way. Songtradr keeps a transactional fee of up to 17.5%, a much smaller fee than typically retained for song placements. Using Songtradr’s proprietary search and variable licensing pricing technology, music supervisors, brands, filmmakers and other creatives can now acquire rights directly from sellers, who include some of the world’s best composers, producers, songwriters, artists, bands, publishers, labels, and rights estates.