From Top Pop Producer to Rights Battler: How Paul Wiltshire Moved to the Other Side of the World to Transform Music Rights Monetization and Content Management

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.