Harvest Media, the leading B2B platform for production music rightsholders, is now offering integration with TikTok, so that customers can provide music and monitor usage for their tracks on the popular platform. 

“We’re seeing a real trend toward delivering production music to social platforms,” explains Harvest Media Managing Director Angus Hayes. “Production music has a role to play in the expanding multi-million dollar market surrounding UGC, and companies want to get involved, either to keep track of any use of their music or to encourage users to dig into their catalog.” 

Harvest Media’s core business is a global network of collaborating, interoperating catalogues and music publishers with sales/marketing agents in all regions and territories around the world. The platform is complemented by APIs and search/download solutions, to help clients transact with the catalogues licensing music, primarily for sync in advertising, TV production, and motion pictures.

Just as artists need a partner to get their music onto Spotify, business music users need a delivery service to manage data, audio quality, and other key moments. In the case of TikTok, catalogue owners need to get their content onto the social platform for a multitude of reasons including whitelisting, and monetization and licensing. To accomplish this, Harvest Media has built self-service tools that keep metadata pristine and provide audio format migration to reduce time-consuming double handling on both sides. This service is part of Harvest Media’s Export Manager suite. Tracks can be delivered directly to one of TikTok’s media libraries, as well as to its Resso streaming service in Brazil, India, and Indonesia. Harvest Media has already delivered more than half a million copyrights to TikTok. TikTok joins other integrations, including Soundmouse, BMAT, Shazam, Dashgo, Adrev, and more than a dozen others globally.

“The production music world is bigger and more diverse in its needs than most people imagine. Music catalogs need to be everywhere,” says Hayes. “To ensure this, we’ve built a near indestructible network of catalogues, enabling our clients to transact their marketing and sales globally. As part of our remit, we assist our clients to get their music and metadata deep into workflows of services of all kinds, including short-form video apps like TikTok.” 

About Harvest Media

Harvest Media has created a best-in-class platform for managing and monetizing production music and sync catalogues, used by a global network of publishers and sub-publishers and featuring key integrations with major music service providers, from Soundmouse, Adrev, and FUGA to BMAT, TikTok, and Shazam. Founded and based in Sydney, Harvest Media sprang from a team of serial tech entrepreneurs Angus Hayes, Roland Hélène, and Hamish Diver, and continues to use tech to empower better relationships and results for its clients.

Leading software for production music catalog management will integrate the innovative cloud-based royalty admin platform, solving a key problem for catalogs everywhere.

Harvest Media is announcing its acquisition of RoyaltyCloud. Together, the companies will create a single, seamless, efficient workflow for production music companies. From one platform, they will be able to do it all, from getting music to broadcasters worldwide to getting royalty payments into the right hands. Full integration of RoyaltyCloud’s services is due for completion in Q1 2022.

Harvest Media and RoyaltyCloud share an obsession with helping music businesses reach their full potential. “RoyaltyCloud is a fantastic, cloud-based, scalable solution. This is a core service all music businesses need and hits a sweet spot for our expanding client base,” explains Roland Hélène, co-founder and COO of Harvest Media. “Harvest Media is designed to save our clients time by providing tools to leverage off the quality data we hold for them. In addition to music search, content distribution to third parties, API connectivity, and broadcaster delivery, we can now provide our clients easy-to-use tools for processing their royalties.” 

RoyaltyCloud is a fast-growing royalty software business founded and run by finance professionals. With extensive experience in audit and accountancy and development of financial software, the team is highly skilled in wrangling huge data sets into formal accounting records. A leader in automation, RoyaltyCloud has focussed on simplifying the processing of royalty data for the publisher. RoyaltyCloud can support most royalty statement formats and has developed its own proprietary matching algorithms to sort through the masses of royalty statement data quickly and efficiently. It prides itself on ensuring timely, accurate accounting practices that can stand up to extensive scrutiny.

“Harvest Media’s focus on efficiency, constant improvement, and data management matches our own, and our services are complementary,” says RoyaltyCloud’s Russell Tew. “We’ve worked to give maximum control to administrators, letting them maintain proper accounting records, produce professional statements, and track key performance indicators, all of which  build trust with clients and save time,” time production libraries can devote to creative endeavors instead of paperwork and error-prone spreadsheet maintenance.

“Royalty administration has long been the bane of music businesses. Music companies must choose between incredibly expensive offline solutions, time-consuming custom builds, or small players with limited clients,” notes Angus Hayes, co-founder and CEO of Harvest Media. “One of our key goals at Harvest is to free up our clients’ time so they can sell and license more music. Our focus on production music means we can build and evolve RoyaltyCloud into a solution tailor made for our clients’ current and future needs.” 

 About Harvest Media

Harvest Media has created a best-in-class platform for managing and monetizing production music and sync catalogues, used by a global network of publishers and sub-publishers and featuring key integrations with major music service providers, from Soundmouse, Adrev, and FUGA to BMAT, TikTok, and Shazam. Founded and based in Sydney, Harvest Media sprang from a team of serial tech entrepreneurs Angus Hayes, Roland Hélène, and Hamish Diver, and continues to use tech to empower better relationships and results for its clients.

Harvest Media, the Sydney-based tech platform for production and sync music, has hired publishing and production music executive Simon James to head its new UK office. The office provides business development and support for the software company in the UK and Europe, as well as North America.

“We’ve long operated globally, but we’re delighted to have a seasoned expert in these markets join our team and work to establish a meaningful presence in the region,” says Harvest Media CEO Angus Hayes. “Simon knows our business inside and out and will be instrumental in supporting current clients as they grow, and in finding new opportunities to connect production libraries and music catalog holders with our technology.”

James most recently headed up production music across UK music rights organizations PRS and MCPS, and historically worked for publishers ATV/Bruton, BMG/Zomba and EMI Music Publishing where he ran the innovative PLAY production music platform. Launched as an online search interface in 2002, PLAY iterations included KPM/Music House, Extreme, Videohelper, Megatrax, Kosinus, Carlin, Focus, Zomba and many more, pioneering B2B online music search. 

“I’ve supported the Harvest Media ethos from the beginning so representing them now is a logical step,” James commented. “Our community is tight but always growing, so this role draws on my experience to assist established friends and clients, as well as to help guide start-ups and share the disciplines required to grow a successful production music business. This initial period has of course been a virtual experience, but I am very much looking forward to hitting the road again soon to meet clients and partners in the real world.”

James’ hire is part of Harvest Media’s expansion plans. “We already serve clients around the globe. Now we’re getting boots on the ground to boost our relationships and better serve rights holders and publishers,” Hayes remarks. 

About Harvest Media
 
Harvest Media has created a best-in-class platform for managing and monetizing production music and sync catalogues, used by a global network of publishers and subpublishers and featuring key integrations with major music service providers, from Soundmouse, Adrev, and BMAT to FUGA and Shazam. Founded and based in Sydney, Harvest Media sprang from a team of serial tech entrepreneurs Angus Hayes, Roland Hélène, and Hamish Diver, and continues to use tech to empower better relationships and results for its clients.

Production music and sync have always been about finding the right track for the scene. Finding that track efficiently has grown ever more important to this multi-billion dollar branch of the music business, as project timelines shrink and demand for content explodes.
 
Harvest Media, the global hub for production music management and discovery, is partnering with AIMS API to expand users’ search options. Harvest Media now offers its clients around the world turnkey ways to employ AI in search, music description, and catalog tagging, via its own Evoke algorithm or using AIMS API’s product, integrated directly into the Harvest Media platform.
 
“We’re driven by a strong desire to offer incredible music search solutions to our clients, so they can better market their music for sync in TV, advertising, short-form video, and motion pictures,” says Harvest Media co-founder and CEO Angus Hayes. “To do this, we offer a range of competing services so our clients can choose the best solution for their business. The options allow us to keep pace with an ever-changing landscape, without getting distracted from our core mission, to help clients grow their businesses.”
 
Search is improving rapidly and becoming increasingly complex, offering greater numbers of methods to users. AI has expanded the options, allowing users to introduce an MP3 file or streaming music link. AI algorithms can translate an audio file into additional search parameters, letting users search for similar-sounding tracks. Similarity search can help a user find new songs that include specific kinds of vocals or instrumentation; the right tone or mood; and other audio touchpoints that go far beyond genre and BPM. And AI in production music and sync is not only being applied to generating search results, but also to presenting these results effectively.
 
AIMS API has been specially trained to find music for production briefs based on audio similarity. It complements Harvest Media’s already robust search options.
 
"We are happy to team up with Harvest to bring AIMS to more music industry professionals,” says AIMS Co-founder and CEO Martin Nedved. “This is an exciting opportunity for us to further showcase our proprietary AI music similarity search technology, which we are continuously making faster and more intelligent. We really think AIMS will be a game-changer for Harvest's clients, helping them to superpower their teams, maximize their catalogs and find the right tracks faster. We can't wait for the feedback!" 
 
Two Harvest Media clients are already taking advantage of the AIMS integration to bring AI search to their broadcast and agency clients. Polish music publisher Jaguarec, with close to 500,000 tracks under its administration, and Spanish publisher Konga Music, with nearly a million, both wanted to compete with larger publishers and services by giving cutting-edge access to their catalogs.
 
“We’ve long provided enterprise level technology and systems for production music and sync clients so they can accomplish their business goals,” says Hayes. “Adding partner integrations enables us to complement our own offerings and keep bounding ahead in a dynamic and competitive marketplace.”
 
About Harvest Media
 
Harvest Media has created a best-in-class platform for managing and monetizing production music and sync catalogues, used by a global network of publishers and subpublishers and featuring key integrations with major music service providers, from Soundmouse, Adrev, and BMAT to FUGA and Shazam. Founded and based in Sydney, Harvest Media sprang from a team of serial tech entrepreneurs Angus Hayes, Roland Hélène, and Hamish Diver, and continues to use tech to empower better relationships and results for its clients.
 
About AIMS API
 
AIMS is an innovative music tech company whose proprietary, AI-based music similarity search provides the most advanced, accurate and time-saving solution for music professionals. With a simple reference track, activate and rediscover your catalog to grow your business. See www.aimsapi.com

The world of production music is often overlooked in broader discussions of the music industry. But this branch of the music business is a sleeping giant, one that’s global, large, lucrative, and growing. 

It requires specific, flexible, and scalable tech to make it thrive, software that can connect farflung markets, search lightning fast, and work--even across competitor lines--as efficiently as possible. Harvest Media has created these tools, tailored to both small nimble libraries and major international players. It is the backend that powers one of the music business’s often overlooked, consistently profitable sectors.

Founded and based in Sydney, Harvest Media sprang from a team of serial tech entrepreneurs Angus Hayes, Roland Hélène, and Hamish Diver. Hayes created Mule Music, Australia’s first B2C download service to sign distribution agreements with major labels in Australia. Hélène and Diver were the technologists who delivered the framework. The platform drew in many new opportunities, but was challenged by the arrival of cashed up music juggernaut iTunes. The trio used their first mover advantage and deep knowledge of digital music assets to leverage what they had built in the production music market. 

This evolution was sparked by a passing conversation with a neighbouring business. It turned out to be the pivot both businesses needed. The neighbors were pushing carts of CDs down the hall every other day. The Mule Music trio asked why, and discovered their neighbors were not alone in the production music market, where CDs lined shelves of music libraries at broadcasters, agencies, and production companies.   

“Every Monday and Wednesday, their staff would walk down the hall with all these CDs. Eventually they’d come back and the trolley was empty. We wondered if we could make the process digital,” Hayes recounts. The trio, now known as Harvest Media, proposed building something to ditch the cart and mailings forever. “We evolved the whole workflow into a global digital service. Thanks to their open perspective and foresight, we landed early relationships with a lot of the better music companies around the world.” They quickly found themselves getting phone calls from broadcasters including Newscorp’s Foxtel, who were all quickly moving to digital music and asset workflows. 

These relationships helped Harvest Media build a best-in-class set of tools, a global network of publishers and subpublishers, and key integrations with major music service providers, from Soundmouse, Adrev, and BMAT to FUGA and Shazam. Guided by the needs of their customers, big and small, Harvest Media developed a model flexible yet granular enough to support specific ins and outs of production music and sync. 

Production music and music for picture demand speed, discoverability, and software that can handle everything from mom-and-pop shops to international enterprise clients. Clients include 300 companies in just about every territory you care to name globally,  such as Warner Chappell Production Music, Anthem Entertainment (Cavendish, Jingle Punks, 5Alarm), Bertelsmann Music Group, West One Music Group, Sony ATV, License Lab, Videohelper and many more. 

Harvest Media offers a freemium version to smaller companies with only a few thousand files, while whitelabeling and developing custom tools for large libraries or companies. “One of the first questions we get asked with a new engagement is ‘What’s your clip?’ the fees some providers charge when a transaction goes through,” Hayes says. “The answer is simple: zero. We are a PaaS or SaaS provider, so you pay for the software tools you use, and we don't profit from your sync success.” 

Instead of fees, Harvest Media has focused on user experience to drive business, boosting efficiency in storage and search, reducing file duplication and keeping content close to potential users to power search results in a flash. It has a range of search tools, including AI-based audio similarity search. It has integrations, even with competitors, to ensure no one has to double-handle tracks or leave their preferred workflow to find music. It’s made it as easy as possible to get a complex, farflung business community work together simply. 

The technology that makes this possible has helped the sector keep pace with ever-faster production cycles and leaner budgets. Publishers and libraries need to protect their copyrights, support their composers, and maximize the value of their catalog. They look in every corner of the globe for potential partners and subpublishers to help them do that. Harvest Media, thanks to its global client base, can help connect publishers with new partners in new markets. “Harvest Media in many ways reflects the impact of digital on what was once a sleepy person-to-person network, a bit of an insider business that only those involved paid much attention to,” Hayes explains. 

“Production music is a bit of an unsung hero in the music business, but “it’s a multi-billion dollar global sector with thousands of players around the world,” notes Hélène. “We help our clients maintain and grow the value of their libraries and catalogs. We help level the playing field.”

“We’ve created an ecosystem where composers can create relationships with publishers, who in turn can deliver deep into video creation platforms, the streaming and broadcast environments where video content for short, medium and long form is being created. In other words, any piece of music that you hear in a TV ad, webisode, TV show or motion picture has probably been delivered to the edit suite by Harvest Media,” Diver muses. “Next time you Shazam a track whilst watching your favorite TV show, the results mean that we’ve done our job getting copyrights to edit suites, DSPs and recognition services globally.”