The Music Managers Forum (MMF) has announced the next phase of its Dissecting The Digital Dollar initiative.
The plans involve collating a Transparency Index that rates labels and distributors on the quality of information and reporting provided to artists and managers.
Based on scoring from MMF manager members on 20 different data and information sets, the Index aims to raise industry standards and to assess how transparent the streaming business is.
MMF CEO Annabella Coldrick said: “The pace of change in the digital music market is incredible. Only weeks into 2018, and the industry is already buzzing with details of Spotify’s direct public offering, and new licensing deals between Facebook and major record labels and publishers.
“These are seismic events that will define our sector for years to come, however it is absolutely crucial that artists, songwriters and their business representatives can understand how these new partnerships are structured and how their creative works are being exploited.
“Unfortunately, these kind of details are often lacking, which is why the MMF launched our Dissecting The Digital Dollar initiative in the first place. We hope that a Transparency Index will provide yet more impetus for improved partnerships between artists and their labels, distributors and aggregators as we look to reforge the industry around fairer and more equitable structures.”
The MMF has also announced the publication of a new paperback book, written with CMU Insights, that collates all Dissecting The Digital Dollar work to date, as well as open access to a Digital Deals Comparison Calculator. The calculator can be accessed here.
