Merlin is the independent’s digital music licensing partner. We’ve negotiated premium deals with Apple, Facebook, Spotify, TikTok, YouTube, and 40 other innovative platforms around the world. Our global membership represents 15% of the recorded music market, from independent record labels to distributors, and from artist management companies to other rightsholders. We are a mission-driven organization that operates like a not-for-profit and is funded entirely by our members at a 1.5% admin fee. Merlin’s world-class relationships, white-glove support, and suite of partnerships helps independents compete at the highest level.
The Organization
- Merlin is a global organization with resources located in London, New York, North Carolina, the Netherlands, and Tokyo.
- We build meaningful long-term partnerships with digital services to drive value to our partners as well as our members.
- We ensure our partners know what’s important to independents, what independents need to succeed, and how to maximize the value from independents.
The Members
- Merlin’s membership represents the music from hundreds of label and distributor members that represent more than twenty thousand labels, hundreds of thousands of artists, and millions of songs from every country in the world.
- Our members represent the most engaged, enthusiastic, and tech-forward music companies in the world.
- Merlin welcomes new members every month that meet our unique qualifiers.
The Music
- Merlin’s members deliver music in all genres and almost all languages, ranging from hip hop artists to EDM powerhouses, indie rockers to country singers, Afrobeats to Christian music, funk MCs to singer-songwriters, Latin to Indian, Reggaeton to EDM, and everything in between.
- Our members’ artists come from all around the world. A small sample includes: 2Pac, alt-J, Arctic Monkeys, Andy Mineo, Anuel AA, Aphex Twin, Arlo Parks, Armin Van Buuren, bbno$, Beach House, Björk, Bonobo, blackbear, Bon Iver, Carin Leon, Chance The Rapper, Christine and the Queens, Collie Buddz, Flying Lotus, Four Tet, Joao Gomes, Juice WRLD, Lee Brice, Lomepal, Manu Chao, MC Kevin o Chris, Mitski, Major Lazer, Ms Nina, Nirvana, Official HIGE DANdism, Phoebe Bridgers, Snoop Dogg, and Thundercat.
- If you don’t have a music pitching process, Merlin has developed a best-in-class pitching form to help surface the right music or artist for any type of service, feature or opportunity.
The Quantitative Value
- Single licensing agreement – you only need a single agreement to license Merlin’s dynamic membership, their artists, and the most diverse music in the world.
- Innovative – there is no one size fits all. The Merlin team has the experience to customize our licensing arrangement based on the nature of each partnership.
- Deal maintenance – you have a single partner to rapidly address new features, new offerings, and new opportunities.
- Single report – you only need to issue a consolidated report to Merlin.
- Single payment – you only need to make a single payment to Merlin.
- Management – Merlin accounts and pays royalties to our members on the fastest terms possible.
The Qualitative Value
- Access – you have direct access to our members and can rely upon Merlin’s team and tools to help you better understand, connect with, and access our membership.
- Education – we help educate our members about our digital partners by issuing best practices, summary guides, and one-sheeters.
- Engagement – we regularly engage our members in 1-on-1 meetings and hold virtual sessions to help our members understand how to lean into features and marketing opportunities.
- First movers – members that want to experiment, participate in alpha and beta programs, and work with partners to create unique consumer music experiences.
- Support – our Member Operations team supports our digital partners and members with delivery, integration, and technical issues.
Note: If you are a digital service seeking to license the world’s largest collection of independent music, please click here to apply for a partnership.
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