About
Songtradr was founded by producer/songwriter Paul Wiltshire and developed by a team of music industry professionals who all share a belief and vision to redefine the value of music. The company is focused on solving the transactional difficulties associated with licensing, buying and selling music rights as well ...
Paul Wiltshire:
Chief Executive Officer
Paul is an international multi-award winning record producer, songwriter and entrepreneur who has produced and/or composed music with sales of over 15 million units including twelve #1 selling albums/singles and twenty-eight top 20 albums/singles. Artists include The Backstreet Boys, Human Nature, Delta Goodrem, Guy Sebastian, Engelbert Humperdinck and Vanessa Amorosi.
Paul founded music business PLW Entertainment, which was eventually acquired by ASX (Australian Stock Exchange) listed technology company Goconnect Limited in 2010, where he served on the Board for several years.
Extremely passionate about changing the music industry into a better place, Paul has focused all of his efforts on working to achieve this through Songtradr.
Steve Karpowicz:
Chief Operating Officer
Steve is a highly experienced music executive who has worked for various music publishers and music production houses in Los Angeles over the last 15 years.
Prior to his engagement with Songtradr, Steve was the Senior VP of Musicbox, the production music division for ole Rights Management, one of the largest independent music publishers. Steve has also served as the General Manager for Vanacore Music for 5 years and the Operations and Distribution Manager for Megatrax Production Music for 6 years.
Steve is an accomplished guitarist, audio engineer and avid music fan. He has a bachelors degree in global business management from the University of Phoenix and was certified as an audio engineer from Musician’s Institute in Hollywood.
Tom Callahan:
Chief Customer Officer
With 30 years of music industry executive experience, Tom has been involved with some of the biggest names in music history. From Rod Stewart and Lenny Kravitz to Paula Abdul and Shania Twain amongst many others. He began his career as a musician and segued into working for a number of record labels. At Virgin records, he became Vice President of adult format radio promotion before launching his own businesses, including an artist development and management company.
Michelle Crispin:
VP Head of Music
A creative executive with 20 years of experience in the music industry, including music supervision & licensing, A&R, artist development, management, marketing and publicity. Prior to joining Songtradr, Michelle was Sr. Creative Director of Mighty Generation Music, General Manager of Vellum Records, and President of mediaHo publicity. Michelle has degrees in Music Performance and Communications from Jacksonville University and toured for many years as a professional musician, before transitioning to the executive side of the music industry.
Helge C. Steffen:
Chief Technology Officer
Helge has over 20 years experience in software/web development including 10 years as Director of software development and deployment worldwide for one of the world’s largest independent music publishers, Peermusic.
Helge is a perfectionist who never settles for second best and always strives to make the user experience exceptional. He is a unique combination of technologist, coder, musician and publishing expert, fueling the Songtradr engine!
Erin Dillon:
Account Executive
In her new role as Account Executive at Songtradr, Erin is excited about sharing a vast and diverse new catalogue of music. She aims to align the brand with high profile Film & TV placements, allowing the quality of the product to speak for itself.
With a lengthy background in Music Supervision, Erin is perceptive and committed to getting Creatives the best material for their projects. Her IMDB credits (America’s Best Dance Crew, Muffin Top: A Love Story, Hit the Floor, Madea’s Witness Protection) speak to her savvy ear.
As a Los Angeles native and performance pianist of 15 years, Erin is endlessly inspired by music.
Sarah Ponder:
Account Executive
Sarah’s passion for music - ranging from the most esoteric to widely known artists - has helped forge her career in the business.
Having started as a coordinator, she has gone on to work in licensing, administration, artist acquisition and music supervision. Her experience lies in Reality Television with shows (The Jersey Shore, Party Down South, Friendzone, Tattoo Nightmares) Independent Features (Dark Mountain, Whiskey Business, Random Acts Of Violence) , Commercials (Chevy, Mazda) and Trailers (In the Heart Of The Sea, XMen: Apocalypse, Our Brand Is Crisis).
Her steadfast love of promoting the highest quality music in an array of genres attracted her to the Songtradr family. Being able to facilitate her clients’ satisfaction in acquiring the ideal song for their needs brings her the utmost satisfaction.
Contact
Songtradr Plays Music Matchmaker to Products, Creators, and Consumers
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.