Supported by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korean Copyright Commission, the three-year agreement promises to enhance transparency in music reporting processes and ensure fairer royalty payments to creators and rights holders. 

This partnership marks a significant milestone for us at Orfium, as Soundmouse by Orfium is one of the first third-party companies granted access to the Korean Music Database, allowing us to deliver seamless matching of reported music against their vast repository of 17.3 million Korean music tracks.

Steve Choi, Secretary General of BROMIS, said the partnership is a game-changer for the music industry in South Korea, stating that “The sharing of clear, transparent, and granular data from a neutral source represents a significant step towards making the music industry a more equitable environment. With the consistent accuracy and reliability of their reporting, Soundmouse by Orfium stood out as the best partner for the project. The quality and accuracy of their reporting processes will be game changing for our industry and will have a positive impact on the remuneration of creators and rights holders as well as the development of our wider industry ecosystem.”

The impact of this collaboration extends beyond mere technological advancements though. South Korean collecting societies will now be able to leverage Soundmouse by Orfium’s reports to inform royalty distributions to their members, including songwriters, recording artists, phonogram producers, and rights holders. By seamlessly meeting cue sheet requirements and streamlining reporting processes, broadcasters will be able to engage in more efficient negotiations with collecting societies, fostering a healthier music ecosystem.

Rob Wells, CEO of Orfium, said, “To be selected for such a significant project underscores the quality of our technology, team, and our commitment to the music industry. We are thrilled to expand our presence in the Asian market, supporting local creators and rights holders while enhancing the transparency and accuracy of music reporting processes.”

Bonna Choi, Head of Soundmouse by Orfium Korea mirrored this sentiment, “After such a rigorous consultation and trial process, we are excited to have been selected and accredited by BROMIS to work on behalf of creators, rights holders, broadcasters and collecting societies. We will bring extensive industry experience from an expert team, the highest standards in cue sheet reporting, and the most advanced technology in audio recognition fingerprinting to strengthen the process of music reporting in such an important market.”

This exciting new deal, officially approved in January 2024, marks another significant step in Orfium’s expansion in Asia. Following successful partnerships with entities like Avex, Bandai Namco, and the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC), Orfium continues to lead the charge in revolutionizing music reporting and rights management across the continent.

Be a part of the journey with Orfium in Asia

If you’re interested in our journey and want to explore opportunities with Orfium, get in touch here.

The accreditation is an important marker for us at Orfium and our client base, providing important assurance on the robustness of Orfium’s information security policies.   

Introduced in 2005 by the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission, ISO/IEC 27001 stands as an international benchmark for effective information security management.

This standard offers comprehensive guidance for the establishment, implementation, maintenance and continual improvement of an Information Security Management System (ISMS), outlining the essential requirements that an ISMS must meet.

The adoption of the ISO/IEC 27001 standard certification brings Orfium several benefits, including:

1. Risk Management: Identification of information security risks to mitigate vulnerability to cyber-attacks. Preparation of people, processes, and technology across the organization to address potential risks.

2. Enhanced Security Measures: Promotion of robust security controls and measures.

3. Compliance and Legal Alignment: Support in meeting regulatory requirements related to information security, critical for sensitive data such as financial statements, intellectual property information, or employee data.

4. Business Continuity Enhancement: Establishment of protocols for incident management.

5. Continual Improvement: Regular reviews and enhancements to the ISMS, fostering a culture of ongoing improvement in security practices.

Having ISO 27001 compliance is an important milestone for Orfium. It assures all our clients that we have robust information security policies in place for all of Orfium’s global operating companies.

Our commitment to customers worldwide is to guarantee that the data they share with us is safe and that we will continually evolve our processes to ensure ongoing compliance with international security practices.

Michael Petychakis, CTO at Orfium

About the IISO/IEC 27001 standard

ISO/IEC 27001 is the world’s best-known standard for information security management systems (ISMS).

The ISO/IEC 27001 standard provides companies of any size and from all sectors of activity with guidance for establishing, implementing, maintaining and continually improving an information security management system.

Conformity with ISO/IEC 27001 means that an organization or business has put in place a system to manage risks related to the security of data owned or handled by the company, and that this system respects all the best practices and principles enshrined in this International Standard.

For more information visit: https://www.iso.org/standard/27001 

In this blog post, we’ll share expert tips on how to grow your catalog revenue on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram/Facebook. Whether you’re a seasoned rights owner or just starting out, we’ll guide you on how to build an effective user-generated content (UGC) strategy.

If you have questions after reading this article or are looking to gett more revenue out of your music on TikTok, YouTube or Meta (Instagram and Facebook), we invite you to get in touch with our team to learn how you could be generating more revenue across UGC platforms. 

1. Upload your music to UGC platforms

To tap into the exponential growth of UGC and growing revenue potential, you as music rights owners first need to upload your music to social media platforms for users to engage with. 

There are three ways you can make your music accessible to creators on UGC platforms.

1. Make your music available through a distributor
2. Gain access to each platform’s Content Management System
3. Manage your music through a Rights Management Company

1. Make your music available through a distributor

Whether you’re an individual artist or a more established label, distributors can help place your music on popular platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, and sometimes UGC platforms too. This mass market option is a viable alternative for those who either currently aren’t in a position to sign with Rights Management Companies like Orfium, or aren’t affiliated with a label.

Not all distributors have partnerships with UGC platforms though, and if you do have one you may have to ask if they can handle the uploading process for you. Distributors who do UGC distribution often collect revenue for rights owners, so you’ll rely on them to take care of the tasks listed in the next section.

2. Gain access to each social platform’s Content Management System (CMS)

What is a CMS?

Content Management Systems (CMS) are essentially a personal dashboard to the backend of social media platforms. They offer a basic level of usage monitoring, revenue tracking and a place to manage potential copyright infringements. Each platform has its own CMS for rights owners: TikTok has MediaMatch, YouTube has ContentID and Meta has RightsManager. These systems enable rights owners to upload metadata and tracks to their platforms – from sound recordings to compositions.

Each CMS will require rights owners to register and wait for approval from the platform. This can be a tricky process. For all of them, the size of your catalog is a factor. Currently, only the largest rights owners with the most extensive catalogs of music have CMS access. For rights owners who don’t have CMS access, you can go through a third party that already has CMS access – namely a distributor or Rights Management Company.

3. Manage your music through a Rights Management Company

So how does going through a Rights Management Company work? You’ll first need to get your catalog into a music library, such as Extreme Music or 5 Alarm. Then, the music library needs to bring on a Rights Management Company and agree to have them administer the library’s assets on UGC platforms for revenue claiming.

In this scenario, Rights Management Companies like Orfium play a crucial role. They collaborate directly with labels, publishers, production music companies and established rights holders to develop customized services and strategies tailored specifically for UGC platforms. These strategies can include metadata cleanups and handling, asset uploading, revenue collection, usage finding and tracking and everything else in the following sections.

2. Optimize your metadata to boost usage and revenue from UGC platforms

The discoverability and monetization of your music on UGC platforms are directly linked. Accurate and comprehensive metadata is key to boosting discoverability, usage, and revenue. It’s crucial to prioritize organizing and perfecting your metadata before uploading your music. This proactive approach increases the chances of your music being found by users and the use of your music being properly attributed, leading to more monetization opportunities.

What is music metadata?

Music metadata can be considered the digital DNA of a song file. It usually lives as a spreadsheet of data that includes vital information like artist name, song title, album, copyright information, writer names, ISRCs, and territory ownership amongst other details. All of this metadata is the code that allows UGC platforms to understand and categorize music and ownership effectively.

Best practices for handling metadata

To optimize your music’s presence on UGC platforms, you’ll likely need to carry out a comprehensive ‘clean up’ of your metadata. Here are some best practices to consider when sorting and perfecting your metadata:

1. Pay Attention to Details: Thoroughly review and double-check your metadata for accuracy and completeness. Uniform spacing and capitalization are two things to watch out for which often trip up the upload process.
2. Provide High-Quality Reference Files: When uploading sound recordings, ensure you have high-quality MP3 or WAV files. These reference files are used by automatic detection systems employed by UGC platforms to identify the usage of your music in videos. The higher the quality, the better the detection.
3. Unique Reference Files: While detection systems like Content ID (YouTube’s CMS) are effective, they are not perfect. To avoid unnecessary claim and reference overlaps, make sure your reference files are as unique as possible. Be mindful of arrangements and the use of samples when uploading your music.
4. Research Platform Requirements: Different UGC platforms have varying requirements for metadata and reference files. Research and understand these requirements for each platform to streamline the ingestion process.
5. Choose a Reputable Rights Management Company: If you opt for a rights management company to handle UGC for you, choose a reputable and trustworthy partner – if it’s not done right, you’ll risk missing out on potential revenue without even knowing it’s lost. Choose a company that is trusted, has proven results, and is happy to put you in touch with existing clients who can provide recommendations.

3. Actively manage your music on UGC platforms

When your music is on one or multiple UGC platforms, keep a close eye on the associated admin tasks to make sure they’re delivering revenue to their full potential. The frequency of these tasks could range from daily to monthly depending on the size and popularity of your catalog. Managing these tasks promptly and thoroughly is crucial to making sure you’re tracking and monetizing accurately, and can be done within the CMS of each platform. 

These tasks can all be handled by your own in-house person or team, by your distributor or by a Rights Management Company.

How and where do I manage my music on TikTok, YouTube or Meta?

Within the CMS lives your assets which will need to be uploaded and managed. 

What this means for rights holders is that you can have control over how your assets are used. 

For example, a route for review to monetize policy can come in handy for production music companies who are licensing music for use on UGC platforms, giving them the ability to approve or deny any automatic claim for monetization before the claim is placed.

To make sure your catalog is being managed in a timely way, you should allocate a team or outsource the responsibility to a Rights Management company. For the majority of rights owners who will not be granted CMS access, this is the best route toward effective and accurate monetization.

How to manage conflicts, disputes & reference overlaps for music on TikTok, YouTube or Meta

The nature of UGC means that vast volumes of creation every minute of every day means that conflicts, disputes and reference overlaps happen very often. But life would not be life without hiccups in the revenue-claiming process. As annoying as these issues can be, each CMS has avenues to solve them. 

Conflicts: This is when two or more parties may be claiming ownership of any given asset. While assets are in conflict any money generated from claims is escrowed and only paid out to the remaining party holding ownership when the conflict is resolved in the form of backpay. 

Ownership conflicts occur when two or more parties place more than 100% ownership on any given asset. When an asset has over 100% ownership between different parties, the conflict will cause all money generated by copyright claims to go into escrow. YouTube will hold this money until the ownership conflict is resolved meaning the percentage of ownership goes back to 100% between all parties. YouTube’s Content Management System allows users to contact third parties to resolve any conflict issues. It is important to stay on top of conflicts as this can be a blocker for paying out the proper earnings on each asset. 

Disputes: When a copyright claim is placed on a video, the uploader of the video has the right to dispute the claim. Once a dispute is placed, the copyright claim is set to inactive. The CMS gives you the ability to accept or reject the dispute by reinstating the claim or releasing the claim.

Reference Overlaps: If two parties ingest the same sound recording this can result in a reference overlap. This can be a portion of the reference or the entire reference. If a reference overlap occurs, you can action the issue by asserting ownership of the sections that overlap or you can exclude the portions that overlap from your reference. 

Copyright claims: When an uploader publishes video content containing copyright material without permission or licensing, they may receive a copyright claim that allows copyright owners to take actions on the material they own. 

The copyright claim will use the asset and the associated policy that has been chosen by the rights holder to track, monetize, block, etc. 

This is not to be confused with a removal request or a strike. While rights holders have the right to submit a removal request or a strike, a copyright claim does not necessarily mean the video will receive a removal request or a strike. 

If you’re going through a distributor or Rights Management Company, be sure to ask them how frequently these issues will be monitored and tackled by the team handling your catalog. Time is of the essence in all aspects of revenue claiming on UGC. Not all platforms recognize revenues prior to approved claims – so you’ll want to be sure that all possible bumps in the claiming process are being actively handled.

What is manual claiming?

ContentID, MediaMatch, and RightsManager are automated systems that scan user-generated content (UGC) for music usage and generate claims for rights holders. However, these systems are not perfect and struggle to identify deviations from the original source material. As a result, covers, remixes, and fan-recorded live performances (or UGC) often go undetected due to differences in instrumentals or lyrics compared to the original files uploaded by rights owners. This is where manual claiming is crucial.

Manual claiming presents a significant opportunity for Production Music companies, as licensed content is being used and shared on the platform without proper acknowledgment or monetization.

Failure to consistently identify usages and provide accurate timestamps will result in missed revenue opportunities. This is especially critical on TikTok, where revenue is only delivered after a claim has been placed. Historical usage of your tracks before placing a claim will not be considered.

If your Distributor or Rights Management Company is handling manual claims on your behalf, they are likely to employ a fourth-party service with technology or manpower to search for usages not caught by automatic usage trackers. 

Talk to an expert

Interested in working with a third party to manage your music rights across UGC platforms? Orfium works with top Production Music Companies across the world to manage and boost their catalog revenue on UGC platforms. To learn more, get in touch with our team experts.

Building upon Orfium’s recent partnerships with Japanese entertainment giants Avex and Bandai Namco, we are thrilled to announce our latest collaboration with JASRAC, Japan’s largest collective management organization (CMO). Through this exciting venture, our AI-powered technology services will enhance YouTube revenues for JASRAC’s extensive network of over 20,000 members, including talented songwriters, composers, and publishers.

Japanese music is enjoying a global surge in popularity, thanks in part to its remarkable growth on streaming and user-generated content (UGC) platforms. As a result, JASRAC’s members catalogs are gaining unprecedented exposure and appreciation worldwide. In recent years, the Japanese Performing Rights Organization (PRO) has been actively exploring avenues to improve remuneration for its valuable community.

JASRAC’s collaborative efforts with the Music Publishers Association of Japan

In recent years, JASRAC has been actively seeking ways to improve financial returns for its community amidst the growth of Japanese music. In collaboration with the Music Publishers Association of Japan, it has been involved in investigating fingerprint technology since 2017. This endeavor led to the implementation of music recognition devices in retail outlets in 2021.

Orfium’s support for UGC revenue streams

Global recognition of JASRAC’s catalog, combined with Orfium’s expertise has the potential to significantly enhance revenue for JASRAC’s members. 

By enabling revenue claiming across UGC platforms, we strive to ensure that Japanese creators and rights holders can fully capitalize on this new revenue stream and maximize the success of their music on a global scale.

Be a part of the journey with Orfium Japan

If you’re interested in our journey and want to explore opportunities with Orfium,  get in touch here.

Just weeks after our exciting deal with the Japanese entertainment conglomerate Avex, we are thrilled to announce another significant partnership, this time with Bandai Namco Music Live, a key player in Japanese Anime music. This marks a major milestone in our expansion into Japan and entry into the thriving anime music industry.

As Bandai Namco Music Live’s rights management partner on YouTube, we will leverage our AI technology to oversee, optimize, and monetize their extensive catalog on the platform.

Introducing Bandai Namco Music Live

Bandai Namco Music Live, a leading player in the Japanese anime music industry, has an extensive collection of songs and represents over 3,000 talented creators. They have contributed to numerous beloved entertainment moments, from the popular Love Live! series to the action-packed One-Punch Man.

As the popularity of digital platforms such as YouTube continues to skyrocket, the global reach of anime is also increasing. Recognizing this opportunity, Bandai Namco Music Live chose to partner with Orfium for its superior technology, which optimizes the management and monetization of music used in UGC which will enable them to continually invest into new productions and reach more fans.

As Akiho Matsuo, Rights Department General Manager at Bandai Namco Music Live, put it, “By partnering with Orfium, whose superior technology allows for the management and monetization of music used in user generated content, we can ensure that artists and creators make their music available on a popular global platform and one that, importantly, is also optimized for monetization.”

The Rising Tide of UGC in Japan’s Booming Music Market

Our partnership with Bandai Namco Music Lives sees Orfium move into anime music, a genre with its roots firmly in Japan but which has grown in popularity around the world as anime (short for animation) has become a global phenomenon. According to research by Morgan Stanley, the market reached a value of US$ 25 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow to US $ 35 billion by 2030. Japan is the major contributor in the anime market, accounting for over 40% of the global anime market in 2020.

This growth provides a perfect opportunity for those in the entertainment and music industry to utilize new solutions to capitalize on international growth and fan appetite – a natural alignment with Orfium’s expansion into the Japanese and Asian markets. Leveraging our market-leading AI-powered technology, Orfium aims to help clients optimize and monetize user-generated content (UGC) in this rapidly growing market. 

The Path Ahead: Future Opportunities for Orfium in Japan

Japan has held a pivotal position in Orfium’s global expansion strategy since 2022 when we acquired Breaker and established Orfium Japan, led by Alan Swarts. This latest deal builds on our partnerships with Avex, Warner Music Japan, and Victor Entertainment, highlighting our commitment to driving global digital transformation through local collaborations.

With the strength and expertise of our dedicated local team and the latest in cutting edge AI-powered technology, we are excited to continue forging more partnerships in Japan and across Asia’s dynamic music and entertainment landscape to power revenues for rights holders and creators across digital music and broadcast platforms.

We’re excited to share news of our latest partnership with Avex in Japan. Avex is a powerhouse in the world of entertainment and this partnership signals a significant step in Orfium’s growth as the first deal of its kind in Asia. 

Japan is the world’s second largest music market, yet UGC monetization is still in its infancy. Recognising the opportunity to support the market there, Orfium expanded to Japan in 2022 with the acquisition of Breaker (now Orfium Japan) and has been growing solidly in the market since then.

Orfium is set to become Avex’s partner for music catalog management on YouTube, utilizing our AI-based matching technology to maximize revenue for Avex’s rights holders, artists, writers, and composers.

Who is Avex?

Picture a goliath in the world of entertainment, a company that weaves music, animation, film, and digital prowess into the iconic music landscape in Japan. The sounds behind a whole world of anime, filmmaking, Japan’s iconic and thriving DJ scene and so much more. That’s Avex Inc. 

Founded in 1988, they started in the music and entertainment industry as a wholesale business of imported music records. They’ve since expanded to be a powerhouse in record labels, live music performances, animation, and filmmaking.

Avex’s mission is most aptly put by Avex’s own Representative Director and CEO Katsumi Kuroiwa, who says they are “Making impossible entertainment, possible.”, and they have been a pioneer in doing just that. Projects like Justin Bieber’s world tour to Japan, and the first fully remotely animated film ‘She Sings, As If It Were Destiny’ are just two shining examples of Avex’s innovation that proves that they are a driving force and strong representation of the desire in the Japanese market to consume and contribute to the music and entertainment industry.

The Growth of UGC & the Japanese Music Market

Ranking as YouTube’s third-largest revenue contributor, Japan’s digital music scene is flourishing. Although YouTube thrives with 70 million monthly active users, UGC monetization is just taking flight, with many Japanese music companies only now transitioning from restrictions to embracing the vast potential of sharing and licensing.

In 2022, despite YouTube’s global payout of over $6 billion, Japan received a modest 6% – showing clearly the opportunity for artists and rights holders to gain more for their art. There’s a huge opportunity here to fill the gaps by many platforms’ own services for tracking and monetizing music which leave potentially millions of dollars worth of revenue unfound and unclaimed – and as more music is shared, that opportunity is only growing.

Having already established ourselves as the leader in other major markets for UGC rights management and monetization, Orfium is excited to be a part of reclaiming those missed revenue opportunities by partnering with more Japanese clients, and supporting the unique industry there. We already work with the world’s leading Music Publishers, Record Labels, Broadcasters and Production Music Companies in the US and UK, and have delivered unrivaled results for them; and we’re excited to demonstrate the same value for the Japanese and Asian markets.

Our local team, led by the experienced and passionate Alan Swarts, has been instrumental in our swift rise in the Japanese market – behind every great achievement, is a dedicated and skilled team, and Orfium Japan is no exception. With their deep industry knowledge and commitment, they’ve ensured that Orfium Japan is positioned to deliver the full potential and degree of success we’ve seen around the world for our clients.

Looking Ahead: What Lies Beyond the Horizon

Orfium’s partnership with Avex follows agreements with Warner Music Japan and Victor Entertainment, and we’re looking forward to sharing news of more Japanese partner deals very soon. Driven by our company goal to deliver optimized UGC revenue generation, we are continuing to improve the industry for the better for creators, artists and rights owners, one partnership at a time. As we grow internationally, we look forward to more partnerships across the music and entertainment landscape of Japan and Asia

Be a Part of the Journey with Orfium Japan

If you’re intrigued by our journey and want to explore opportunities with Orfium, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team.

We’re delighted to announce Orfium’s official sponsorship of All That Matters 2023!

As Orfium rolls out our full suite of tools and services into the Japanese and Asian markets, we are proud to announce our entry into the region with the confidence and clientele of some of the largest broadcasters, video game publishers and music publishers already. 

With a global team of over 600 specialists, including dedicated teams in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, we have already established ourselves as a major player in solving key challenges in catalog and rights management in the entertainment industry. Our participation in the All That Matters event, which aligns perfectly with our core vision of driving innovation in the entertainment industry, provides us with the perfect platform to introduce our innovative solutions and to network with other professionals in the region.

Our sponsorship of the event reflects our unwavering dedication to driving innovation in the industry. We are excited to connect with other professionals, artists, and visionaries in the industry to explore the latest trends and innovations shaping the future.

About All That Matters 2023

The event blends business insights with fan enthusiasm and will take place in Singapore from September 11-13, 2023. This annual gathering has become a highlight on the industry calendar where the entertainment, media, and technology professionals come together to focus on current and future challenges, opportunities and innovation. An impressive lineup of professionals, artists, experts, and visionaries will come together to explore the latest trends and innovations shaping the future of these dynamic fields.

What’s in Store

The agenda is filled with an engaging array of keynotes, interactive panels, workshops, music showcases, and networking opportunities that are designed to foster the exchange of knowledge and ideas. This event is a platform to uncover the ever-evolving trends, challenges, and opportunities in music, gaming, sports, marketing, and beyond. 

The Orfium team will be there, including Alan Swarts, CEO of Orfium Japan, Bonna Choi, Head of Soundmouse by Orfium Korea, John Possman, Director of Orfium Japan, and Shiro Hosojima, Chief Operations Officer in Japan. 

Orfium to Discuss Online Media Monetization

Orfium will participate in a panel discussion on online media monetization at All That Matters 2023. The panel, titled “Online Media Matters: A Comprehensive Guide for Content Owners and Creators,” will be held on Tuesday, September 12, 2023, at 2:20 PM – 2:50 PM GMT+8. 

Alan Swarts, CEO of Orfium Japan, will be one of the panelists and will share his insights on the latest growth monetization strategies for content owners and creators in the Asia Pacific region. Some of the topics to be discussed will include different revenue streams for content owners, from ad revenue to brand collaborations, as well as legal considerations and future trends in online media monetization. Alan will be joined on stage by other panelists including Hao Zhang, Head of Western Content Partnerships & Licensing at Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME), and Reta Lee, Head of Commerce at Yahoo. 

Orfium’s Vision and Contribution

Orfium’s partnership with All That Matters perfectly aligns with our core mission: driving innovation in entertainment through technology. We offer a suite of services that empower music creators, labels, broadcasters, and more to effortlessly manage and monetize their content. Our involvement in this event is a testament to our dedication to forward-thinking discussions, industry insights, and collaborative endeavors.

Shaping the Future Together with All That Matters 2023

This sponsorship showcases our ongoing commitment to nurturing growth, creativity, and progress in music and entertainment. We’re confident that All That Matters will serve as an invaluable platform for forging connections, sparking fresh ideas, and advancing our collective understanding of this ever-evolving landscape.

A Special Thanks

Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to the organizers and participants who have crafted an environment that encourages exploration, collaboration, and insightful conversations. We’re eagerly looking forward to contributing to the event’s success and engaging in meaningful exchanges that will undoubtedly shape the future of entertainment and technology.

For more details about the event, including registration information and the schedule, please visit the official All That Matters website.

Come Meet us at All That Matters 2023!

If you’re curious to learn more about Orfium and how we’re using machine learning, AI, and innovative algorithms to streamline and boost client revenue streams, feel free to drop by our Orfium VIP Lounge at the event, and leave your details here.

This week, we announced our partnership with PRS for Music, the leading music rights organization. This collaboration is set to revolutionize the music industry in Africa as PRS expands its licensing coverage to music users based in Africa supported by Orfium’s licensing and technology infrastructure. This will provide access to tens of millions of works, including many of the most successful songs and compositions of today and the last century.  The thriving African music industry is set to experience a boost in innovation, efficiency, and growth through this collaboration, which will ultimately benefit the talented songwriters, composers, and publishers across the continent as well as the music users.

Orfium will be licensing the PRS repertoire and providing the technology infrastructure needed to efficiently serve the African music market. The partnership marks a significant milestone, paving the way towards equitable remuneration for talented songwriters, composers, and publishers across Africa for their creative work.

This partnership is expected to bring about significant benefits including increased speed to market for music creators, improved music discovery, as well as cost efficiencies. 

An exciting aspect of this partnership is the expansion of PRS for Music’s Major Live Concert Service, the royalty collection service for large concerts, which will now be available for events held across Africa. This is a significant step in expanding the global reach of PRS for Music’s services and supporting music creators in Africa. 

In addition to PRS’s existing agreement with SAMRO, the collecting society based in South Africa, the partnership with Orfium will provide a framework for PRS members to be paid when their works are used in some of the world’s fastest-growing music markets. This is a crucial development that ensures songwriters, composers, and publishers are fairly compensated for their music across the African continent.

“We’re incredibly excited to partner with PRS for Music. Orfium exists to support and improve the global entertainment ecosystem so that creators everywhere can be paid fairly for their work. Over the last three years, we have invested heavily in building a state-of-the-art rights management platform to support our partners in the licensing and remuneration of music rights in the entertainment industry. Orfium looks forward to working with PRS as their trusted partner to support this incredible region and contributing to Africa’s future as a high-growth music market.” Rob Wells, CEO, Orfium

Stay tuned to the latest news and updates from Orfium. Subscribe to our newsletter below.

Today, we’re delighted to share that Orfium has acquired Soundmouse, bringing together the global market leaders in digital music and broadcast rights management and reporting.

Who is Soundmouse?

Soundmouse is a global leader in music cue sheet reporting and monitoring for the broadcast and entertainment production space. They share our vision to revolutionize digital music and broadcast rights management and will join Orfium to deliver even more benefits to creators, rights holders, broadcasters and collecting societies with cutting edge technology and industry expertise.

Soundmouse has set the global standard for cue sheet and music reporting around the world, connecting all stakeholders in the reporting process including broadcasters, producers, collecting societies, distributors, program makers and music creators themselves. It works for major broadcasters, media companies and streaming platforms.

Why is Orfium acquiring Soundmouse?

Bringing Soundmouse into the Orfium family, we’re moving to a place where we can serve the entire entertainment ecosystem across mainstream and digital media. By connecting creators, rights holders, and music users, we can deliver even more value to stakeholders across the board.

Combining Soundmouse’s leadership in cue sheet management and monitoring for the broadcast and entertainment production space and Orfium’s expertise in UGC tracking and claiming for publishers, labels and production music companies, we bring the worlds of digital and broadcast together in an integrated way. This will allow us to scale our product offering and expand deeper into the complex infrastructure of the entertainment industry, streamlining content creation and management for program makers, broadcasters and music rights holders.

What does the Soundmouse acquisition mean for Orfium?

Since 2015, Orfium has innovated to bring cutting-edge technology to the music rights management space and has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue for its partners, which includes top global record labels, music publishers, production music companies, and collecting societies. 

Making music easier to find, use, track, and monetize across all channels is one of the core problems we’re helping to solve for the industry. Acquiring Soundmouse enables us to scale our product offering and expand deeper into the complex infrastructure of the entertainment industry, streamlining content creation and management for program makers, broadcasters and music rights holders.

What does the future look like for Orfium following the Soundmouse acquisition?

We’re committed to solving the entertainment industry’s most complex problems. We continue to develop technology solutions built on the latest in machine learning and AI, empowering rights owners, creators and key stakeholders to realize more value as new platforms for media consumption emerge and scale.

At a time when it has never been harder for creators, rights holders and media companies to track and monetize usage with the proliferation of new channels, platforms and the growth of the Metaverse and Web3, there is no other company in this space building and investing in technology like Orfium. Orfium is committed to delivering the technology needed to support the entertainment industry of today and the future.

Acquiring Soundmouse is a great start to the year for Orfium. We’re excited to welcome the Soundmouse team to join ours and integrate our combined technology, teams and expertise to bring even more value to the entertainment ecosystem.

Stay tuned, lots more still to come from Orfium in 2023!

The Orfium team

To learn more about how Orfium can support you in unlocking more value, contact our team today!

Black box testing for non-data engineers with DBT

Black box testing is a software testing method in which the functionalities of software applications are tested without having knowledge of internal code structure, implementation details, and internal paths. Let’s borrow that term and use the same analogy to test our black boxes, meaning our dbt models.

So, adapting the lexicon from software engineering, we have:

Black Box: the dbt model that plays the role of transformation

Input(s): the different tables that are used in the query. In dbt we call these sources or references

Output: the table formed after the dbt model has transformed the data

DBT and testing

DBT is a data build tool. We use it, due to its simplicity, to perform transformation in our snowflake data cloud for analytical purposes. Not to overstate the matter, but we love it.

What, exactly, is dbt?

Building a Mature Analytics Workflow

DBT already offers dbt tests, and performing them is a great way to test the data on your tables. By default, the available tests are unique, not_null, accepted_values, relationship. We can even create custom tests, and there are a variety of extensions out there that stretch dbt functionality with additional tests, such as great expectations and dbt-utils. These kinds of tests examine the values of your tables, and they are a great way to identify any critical data quality issues. DBT tests look at the output. However, what we want to do is to test the black box, the transformation.

TDD and Data

Working with Large Tables

More often than not, the tables that we need to build models upon are huge, and accessing billion of rows and performing transformation upon them takes a long time. A 30 minute transformation might be acceptable when it is a part of a production pipeline, but having to wait for half an hour to develop and test the correctness of your transformation is, well, less than ideal. 

Of course you are going to run it against the table, but minimizing the number of runs makes everyone happy. This also limits your Snowflake Warehouse Usage which can save cost and make accountants happy as well.

Edge cases not covered in actual data

Another problem we often face is having a dbt model that works for all intents and purposes for multiple months, only to later discover that there are cases which we didn’t think of. Unsurprisingly, having billions of rows of data means that all the possible scenarios are not at all easy to cover. If only there was a way to test for those cases, as well. The solution we at Orfium use is to generate mock data. They may not be real, but they work well enough to cover our edge cases and future-proof our dbt instances.

Good Tests VS Bad Tests

Writing tests for the sake of writing them is worse than not writing them at all. There, we said it. 

Let’s face it, how many times do we introduce tests on a piece of software, get excited and, thanks to the quick TDD process, we just gleam with self-confidence? Before you know it, we’re writing tests that have no value at all and inventing a fantastic metric called coverage. Coverage is important but not as a single metric. It is only a first indication and should not be used as a goal in itself. Good tests are the ones that provide value. Bad tests, on the other hand, only add to the debt and the maintenance. Remember, tests are a means to an end. To what end? Writing robust code.

Tests as a requirements gathering tool

How many times have we found ourselves sitting in a room with a stakeholder who provides information about a new report that they need. We start formulating questions, and after some back and forth, sooner or later we are reaching the final requirements of the report. So, happily enough after the meeting, we go to our favorite warehouse, only to discover some flaw in the original request that we didn’t think of when we did our requirements gathering. Working in an agile environment that’s no issue. We just schedule a follow-up meeting and reach a consensus for the edge cases. Final delivery is reached. However, wouldn’t it be better if actual cases could be drafted in that first meeting? Business and engineering minds often don’t mesh well, so we can use all the help we can get.

Establishing actual scenarios of how a table could look like and what the result would be, helps a lot in the process of gathering requirements.

Consider the following imaginary scenario:

Stakeholder:

For our table that contains our daily revenue for all the videos, I would like a monthly summary revenue per video for advertisement category.

Engineer (gotcha):

1select

2 video_id,

3 year(date_rev) as year,

4 month(date_rev) as month,

5 sum(revenue) revenue

6from

7 fct_videos_rev

8where

9 category = 'advertisement'

10group by 

11 video_id,

12 year(date_rev),

13 month(date_rev)

14

Stakeholder

I would also like to see how many records the summation was comprised of.

Engineer (gotcha):

1select

2 video_id,

3 year(date_rev) as year,

4 month(date_rev) as month,

5 sum(revenue) revenue,

6 count(*) counts

7from

8 fct_videos_rev

9where

10 category = 'advertisement'

11group by 

12 video_id,

13 year(date_rev),

14 month(date_rev)

15

Stakeholder

That can’t be right. Why so many counts?

Engineer

There are many rows with zero revenues, I see. You don’t want them to count towards your total count, is that right?

Stakeholder

Yes.

Engineer (gotcha):

1select

2 video_id,

3 year(date_rev) as year,

4 month(date_rev) as month,

5 sum(revenue) revenue,

6 count(*) counts

7from

8 fct_videos_rev

9where

10 category = 'advertisement'

11 and revenue > 0

12group by 

13 video_id,

14 year(date_rev),

15 month(date_rev)

16

Of course, this is an exaggerated example. However, imagine if the same dialog went a different way.

Stakeholder:

For our table that contains our daily revenue for all the videos, I would like a monthly summary on a monthly basis per video for the advertisement category.

Engineer:

If table has the form:

Is the result you want like the following?

Stakeholder

I would also like to see how many records the summation was comprised of.

So the result you want it to be like:

Stakeholder

Why does the first row have 2 counts?

Engineer

There are two with zero revenues, I see. You don’t you want them to count towards your total count, is that right?

Stakeholder

Yes.

Engineer (gotcha):

And all that, without having to write a single line of code. Not that an engineer is afraid to write SQL queries. But really, a lot of time is lost in translating business requirements into SQL queries. They are never that simple and they are almost never correct at first try either.

Tests so software engineers can get onboard in SQL

Orfium is a company which, at the time of writing this post, consists of more than 150 engineers. Only 6 of those are data engineers. That might sound strange, given that we are a data-heavy company dealing with billions of rows of data on a monthly basis. So, a new initiative has emerged called data-mesh. This is a program which we practice on a daily basis and are super proud of. One consequence of data mesh is that there are multiple teams handling their own instance of dbt. But, this will be discussed in detail in another post. Stay tuned!

For the most part, software engineers are not familiar with writing complex SQL queries. That’s not their fault, due to the variety of ORM tools available. However, something that software engineers do know how to do very well is to write tests.

In order to bridge that gap, practicing test-driven development on writing SQL is something that can help a lot of engineers to get onboard.

Let the fun begin

We designed a way to test dbt models (the black box). Our main drivers are:

• Introduce a few changes so that new or mature projects can start using it, without breaking existing behavior.
• Find a way to define test scenarios and identify which of them failed.

We start by introducing the following macros:

1{%- macro ref_t(table_name) -%}

2    {%- if var('model_name','') == this.table -%}

3        {%- if var('test_mode',false) -%}

4            {%- if var('test_id','not_provided') == 'not_provided' -%}

5                {%- do exceptions.warn("WARNING: test_mode is true but test_id is not provided, rolling back to normal behavior") -%}

6                {{ ref(table_name) }} 

7            {%- else -%}

8                {%- do log("stab ON, replace table: ["+table_name+"] --> ["+this.table+"_MOCK_"+table_name+"_"+var('test_id')+"]", info=True) -%}

9                {{ ref(this.table+'_MOCK_'+table_name+'_'+var('test_id')) }}

10            {%- endif -%}

11        {%- else -%}

12            {{ ref(table_name) }} 

13        {%- endif -%}

14    {%- else -%}

15        {{ ref(table_name) }} 

16    {%- endif -%}

17        

18{%- endmacro -%}

19

20{%- macro source_t(schema, table_name) -%}

21

22    {%- if var('model_name','') == this.table -%}

23        {%- if var('test_mode',false) -%}

24            {%- if var('test_id','not_provided') == 'not_provided' -%}

25                {%- do exceptions.warn("WARNING: test_mode is true but test_id is not provided, rolling back to normal behavior") -%}

26                {{ builtins.source(schema,table_name) }}

27            {%- else -%}

28                {%- do log("stab ON, replace table: ["+schema+"."+table_name+"] --> ["+this.table+"_MOCK_"+table_name+"_"+var('test_id')+"]", info=True) -%}

29                {{ ref(this.table+'_MOCK_'+table_name+'_'+var('test_id')) }}

30            {%- endif -%}

31        {%- else -%}

32            {{ builtins.source(schema,table_name) }}

33        {%- endif -%}

34    {%- else -%}

35        {{ builtins.source(schema,table_name) }}

36    {%- endif -%}

37        

38{%- endmacro -%}

The macros are able to optionally change the behavior of the macros of source and ref.

• model_name: refers to the model actually been tested
• test_mode: is a flag that helps identifying if the test_mode is enabled
• test_id: the test scenario that is going to be mocked
• table_name(argument): is the source table that is either going to be the true source, or we stab it and use one of our own.

Prefer multiple small test cases over few large test cases

Test cases should test something specific. Generating Mock data that contain hundreds of records that test multiple business rules should be avoided. Should the test case fail, it should be easy to identify the cause and its impact.

Suppose we would like to create a test_id with the name: MULTIPLE_VIDEOS_HAVE_ZERO_REVENUE for our model VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY which uses a source VIDEOS_INFO

We create a new folder under seeds MOCK_VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY

1. We create the input seed seeds/MOCK_VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY/VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY_MOCK_VIDEOS_INFO_MULTIPLE_VIDEOS_HAVE_ZERO_REVENUE.csv which plays the role of input

1VIDEO_ID,DATE_REV,CATEGORY,REVENUE 

2video_a,2022-02-12,advertisement,10

3video_a,2022-02-12,advertisement,0

4video_a,2022-03-12,other,15

5video_a,2022-03-12,advertisement,1

2. We create the output seed seeds/MOCK_VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY/VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY_MOCK_RESULTS_MULTIPLE_VIDEOS_HAVE_ZERO_REVENUE.csv which plays the role of output we would like to have once

1VIDEO_ID,YEAR,MONTH,REVENUE,COUNTS

2video_a,2022,2,10,1

3video_a,2022,3,1,1

3. We also create a yml seeds/MOCK_VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY/VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY.yml as follows:

1version: 2

2

3seeds:

4  - name: VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY_MOCK_RESULTS_MULTIPLE_VIDEOS_HAVE_ZERO_REVENUE

5    config:

6      enabled: "{{ var('test_mode', false) }}"

7

8  - name: VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY_MOCK_VIDEOS_INFO_MULTIPLE_VIDEOS_HAVE_ZERO_REVENUE

9    config:

10      enabled: "{{ var('test_mode', false) }}"

Notice that the seeds are created only on test_mode. This allows us to omit creating those seeds on default behavior.

4. Now we define the test inside our yml model definition:

1models:

2  - name: VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY

3    description: "Summary of VIDEOS_INFO"

4    tests:

5        - dbt_utils.equality:

6            tags: ['test_VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY_MULTIPLE_VIDEOS_HAVE_ZERO_REVENUE']

7            compare_model: ref('VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY_MOCK_RESULTS_MULTIPLE_VIDEOS_HAVE_ZERO_REVENUE')

8            compare_columns:

9              - VIDEO_ID

10              - YEAR

11              - MONTH

12              - REVENUE

13              - COUNTS

14            enabled: "{{ var('test_mode', false) }}"

5. Our model:

1{{

2    config

3    (

4        materialized = 'table'

5    )

6}}

7

8SELECT

9 VIDEO_ID,

10 YEAR(DATE_REV) AS YEAR,

11 MONTH(DATE_REV) AS MONTH,

12 SUM(REVENUE) REVENUE,

13 COUNT(*) COUNTS

14FROM

15 {{ source_t('MY_SCHEMA','VIDEOS_INFO') }}

16WHERE

17 CATEGORY = 'advertisement'

18 AND REVENUE > 0

19GROUP BY 

20 VIDEO_ID,

21 YEAR(DATE_REV),

22 MONTH(DATE_REV)

Notice the source_t usage instead of using the default source macro.

Now in order to follow the test process we have to go through the following process.

1. Load up our seeds as:

1dbt seed –full-refresh -m MOCK_VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY –vars ‘{“test_mode”:true}’

2. Then execute our model as:

1dbt run -m VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY –vars ‘{“test_mode”:true,”test_id”:”MULTIPLE_VIDEOS_HAVE_ZERO_REVENUE”,”model_name”:”VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY”}’

3. And then execute dbt test to check if our black box behaved as it should:

1dbt test –select tag:test_VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY_MULTIPLE_VIDEOS_HAVE_ZERO_REVENUE –vars ‘{“test_mode”:true,”test_id”:”MULTIPLE_VIDEOS_HAVE_ZERO_REVENUE”,”model_name”:”VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY”}’

Note: Because the whole process is a bit tedious with writing all those big commands, we wrote a bash script which automates all three steps:

The requirement is to create a file conf_test/tests_definitions.csv which has the format:

1# MODEL_NAME,TEST_ID

2VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY,MULTIPLE_VIDEOS_HAVE_ZERO_REVENUE

1. Script reads this file and executes all the tests defined in the file in order
2. Executing tests of only a specific model is supported by passing -m flag ./dbt_test.sh -m VIDEOS_INFO_SUMMARY
3. Executing a specific test case is supported by passing -t flag ./dbt_test.sh -t MULTIPLE_VIDEOS_HAVE_ZERO_REVENUE
4. Lines that start with # are skipped

In the whole set-up described above there are some conventions that are important to be followed, otherwise the script/macros might not work

1. The seed folder must be named MOCK_{model_we_test}
2. The seed which plays the role of input must be named {model_we_test}_MOCK_{model_we_stab}_{test_id}
3. The result which plays the role of wanted result must be named {model_we_test}_MOCK_RESULTS_{test_id}

All the code exists in the following repo: https://github.com/vasilisgav/dbt_tdd_example – Connect to preview  

To see it in practice:

• set up a tdd_example profile
• make sure you run dbt deps to install dbt_utils
• make the script executable chmod +x dbt_test.sh
• and finally execute the script ./dbt_test.sh

RESULTS:

What we have found by working with this approach, as it is expected with any TDD approach. The result was a big win into how we release our dbt models

Pros

• models have grown to become quite clean with their business clearly depicted
• business rules can easily be verified, especially their changes
• business voids are identified faster
• business requirements are generated in a cleaner, more efficient way
• quick development, yes it’s surprising but we deal with billion of rows, the less runs we are going to perform on the full load of table the quicker the development
• regression tests are handled by our github actions ensuring our models behave as expected (multiple puns here )
• QA can happen independently of our dev
• Warehouse usage is limited

Cons:

• Tables sources with multiple columns sometimes are cumbersome to mock, although if columns are not selected then defining them in the mock csv’s is not required
• It’s somewhat difficult to start

So, what are the key takeaways? That testing is important but good, smart testing can truly free an organization of a lot of daily tedium and allow it, as it has us, to focus more on serving the business efficiently and with the least amount of friction.

Vasilis Gavriilidis

Senior Data Engineer @ ORFIUM

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vgavriilidis/

https://github.com/vasilisgav/