peermusic Extends ICE Core Licensing Deal With ICE Services

Independent music publishing and neighboring rights company peermusic, a direct member of the ICE Core since 2018, says it has experienced a substantial surge in royalties, boasting an average year-over-year increase of over 60%. 

The company attributed the growth to a combination of factors, including advancements in processing, improved matching algorithms, and the integration of ICE solutions such as two-stage invoicing.

The effectiveness of these enhancements, coupled with expanded commercial deals, market growth initiatives, and an extended reach into diverse services and territories, has contributed to the royalty flows, according to peermusic.

ICE Core is a rights management and licensing platform provided by ICE, a joint venture between collection societies PRS for Music (UK), STIM (Sweden) and GEMA (Germany). The purpose of ICE is to streamline the licensing and administration of online music rights on behalf of copyright holders, making it more efficient for digital music services to obtain the necessary licenses.

The ICE Core license is designed to facilitate the licensing of musical works for online use, such as streaming and downloading. It allows digital music services to access and use a vast repertoire of musical works represented by the participating copyright societies including PRS, STIM, GEMA, IMRO, BMI, Sabam, AKM, and independent publishers Concord, Songtrust and peermusic. 

Earlier this year, gaming and metaverse startup STYNGR struck a similar partnership with ICE Services to allow the platform to license the repertoire for in-game content.

Commenting on the partnership renewal, Nigel Elderton, President Europe & MD UK at peermusic, said: “Peermusic has a global footprint of 39 offices in 32 countries and we have been expanding the scope and scale of our operations. There’s a natural synergy between our unique needs as a global publishing firm and the broad reach and international efficiencies that the ICE hub brings.”

Elderton added that the ICE Core partnership helps the company bring “top-tier” digital music licensing and processing to its songwriters using advanced technology.

“As a global music firm, peermusic is well-placed to monitor this and help clients access new markets and digital music licensing opportunities whilst working in tandem with ICE,” Elderton continued.

Ben McEwen, Chief Commercial Officer at ICE, added, “The ICE Core is made up of a range of dynamic and forward-thinking rightsholders, exemplified by the team at peermusic.”

“Peermusic were at the forefront of multi-territorial developments and our longstanding partnership with them has enabled us to deliver back the reach and the scale benefits that peermusic were looking for.”

McEwen added: “The mutual understanding of our respective businesses gives us a great platform to build for further sustained growth into the future. The whole team at ICE are proud and energized by working with partners like peermusic to maximize their royalties today, and to build for tomorrow in a fast-moving market.”

Elsewhere at peermusic, the company last month acquired Arctic Rights Management, an indie music publisher in Norway. The deal gave peermusic the publishing rights to ARM’s 5,000-plus recordings and compositions.

In June, peermusic bought the song catalog of country and bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs and majority of the song catalog of his son, Gary Scruggs.