Soundmouse by Orfium Appointed Official Music Reporting Partner for South Korean Broadcast Industry

Photo Credit: Soundmouse by Orfium

After a competitive selection process and rigorous testing and audit period, Soundmouse by Orfium has been appointed as the official music reporting partner for the South Korean broadcasting industry.Soundmouse by Orfium has been selected by the South Korean Broadcasting Music Identifying System (BROMIS) — a consortium led by major broadcasters, including KBS, MBC, SBS, and four collecting societies (KOMCA, KOSCAP, FKMP, KEPA) — as the official music reporting partner for broadcasters in the seventh largest music market worldwide. The selection will enable music creators and rights holders in South Korea to receive accurate and transparent royalty payments for the use of their music on radio and television.

Supported by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, and the Korean Copyright Commission, the three-year agreement will bring greater transparency to music reporting processes and greater accuracy to royalty payments from the country’s collection societies to creators and rights holders.

As part of the agreement, Soundmouse by Orfium will be one of the first third-party companies to be granted access to the Korean Music Database, to match the music reported from broadcasters against a database of 17.3 million Korean music tracks. The company’s music cue sheet reporting and audio recognition fingerprinting technology will be utilized by 36 broadcasters to track music usage across 175 TV channels and radio stations in the country.“To be selected to manage and deliver such a significant project for South Korean broadcasters and music creators is a real validation of Orfium’s technology, the quality of our team, and our track record as a company,” said Orfium CEO Rob Wells. “We are excited to be growing our presence in the Asian market to support local creators and rights holders and look forward to working with all of BROMIS’ stakeholders to strengthen the transparency and accuracy of music reporting processes in the multi-billion dollar broadcast industry.”

“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,” added Bonna Choi, Head of Soundmouse by Orfium Korea. “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.”

“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,” concluded Steve Choi, Secretary General, Steering Committee of BROMIS.

“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.”Officially approved in January, the deal marks another step in Orfium’s expansion in Asia, working with rights holders to track, identify, and report music usage across all types of broadcast and user-generated content platforms. The partnership with BROMIS follows Orfium’s deals last year with Avex, Bandai Namco, and the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers, and Publishers (JASRAC), estimated to represent 90% of Japanese publishers’ repertoire.