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.
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.