Wednesday 2 May 2018, London: Tech start-up JAAK has announced a successful pilot of its blockchain network, KORD, in partnership with leading record labels, publishers, performing rights organisations, music industry service companies, and distributors. Pilot participants include BMG, Global Music Rights, Outdustry, Phoenix Music International Ltd, Sentric, Warner Music Group and Warner/Chappell Music.

In recent years digital technologies such as streaming have enabled huge innovation in music consumption but they have also caused the volume of music rights data to increase exponentially, making the allocation of royalties more complex than ever before. JAAK is working alongside the music industry to explore how blockchain technology can help address these problems. JAAK has been supported by its status as a Techstars Music alumnus and Friend of the Association of Independent Music (AIM).

Pilot participants provided product and rights data to JAAK, which was held in a private version of the KORD network. Built by JAAK, KORD will operate as a permissionless, decentralised network of intellectual property information, allowing rights holders to collaborate on an industry-wide view of rights. Within KORD, users will be connected to a shared data network where they have the sole authority to insert, update and remove their own information, creating a public record of rights and an immutable audit trail. KORD will include a framework to detect conflicting information in the network, allowing users to resolve conflicts and converge on a global view of intellectual property rights.

Leveraging KORD's functionality, JAAK is building a new generation of applications and tools for the music industry. In this pilot JAAK built the first application on top of KORD, which demonstrated how blockchain technology can provide rights management and licensing capabilities on a global scale - when there is industry-wide collaboration on rights.

Following completion of the pilot, JAAK will be launching an industry-wide Music Sandbox, allowing JAAK to develop products and the KORD network in collaboration with the music industry. To find out more and be one of the first to join the JAAK Music Sandbox visit here.

“The internet solved many of the problems relating to rights issues but compounded others” stated Vaughn McKenzie-Landell, CEO of JAAK. “We have developed the Pilot in collaboration with the music industry to directly address their needs. The goal of KORD is to harness blockchain technology to make the world of IP rights better for everyone, starting with the music industry. We’d like to thank our Pilot participants for their continued support and valuable insight.”

Sebastian Hentzschel, CTO & EVP Recorded Royalty Processing, IT & Systems, BMG, added “Metadata is the lifeblood of today's music business. From studios to streaming sites, a clearer picture of recordings and copyrights could yield untapped benefits for artists and writers -- and JAAK is pushing an exciting frontier."

Sean O’Malley, COO, Global Music Rights, said “Regardless of format, Global Music Rights is committed to clear and concise intellectual property metadata, especially the information surrounding licensing and rights ownership. KORD is technology that enables stewards like us to collaborate on the dynamic picture of every song and ensure the correct writers and publishers are accurately and efficiently compensated.”

Steve Clark, EVP Global Operations, Warner/Chappell Music, commented “Warner/Chappell is committed to ensuring our songwriters are paid as quickly, accurately and transparently as possible. We’ve invested heavily in our own systems, but we’ve also worked with pioneering partners, such as JAAK, to help us keep at the cutting edge of technology in this area. The Pilot is going well and we look forward to continued collaboration to harness blockchain technology to the service of our songwriters.”