How Soundtrack fits into the music industry
For music creators, business music streaming is a crucial part of the entire ecosystem.
Every song begins as somebody's idea: a voice memo, the hum of a melody, a drafted lyric that isn't quite there yet. The journey to becoming a chart-topping hit that's playing proudly in your business requires more than most listeners would ever dream of.
Competing label offers, a publishing split, a selection of co-writers, a radio plugger, a playlist editor, a sync supervisor, a performing rights organization. The list goes on. It takes an awful lot to transform a spark of imagination into an official music release.
But wait: the story doesn't end once the song is released.
It can end in a café at eight in the morning, a gym at lunchtime, a hotel lobby at midnight, rooms where an enormous amount of listening happens to people who never pressed play on anything. This isn't a footnote to the music industry; it's a significant share of how music actually gets heard.
Let's rewind first. How does a song get anywhere near your business space in the first place?
Signing on the dotted line
The old image of an unknown act hoping to get noticed at the back of a pub hasn't gone anywhere, but it's not the only path to success. Labels increasingly scout streaming data and short-form video.
Once signed, a record deal covers the recording, the version of the song that ends up on streaming platforms. A publishing deal covers the composition underneath it, the melody and lyrics.
Two contracts, two owners, often two different companies. Not every deal splits that cleanly, though. Some labels offer a 360 deal instead. One contract that also covers touring, merchandise and endorsements.
Nobody makes a record alone
What happens in the studio is even less of a solo act than you might expect.
A producer's often juggling other records at the same time. An engineer can end up spending more hours with the multitrack than the artist does. A co-writer gets pulled in for one afternoon to fix a chorus that isn't landing and ends up staying for the whole session. A session musician records a part that would take anyone else a week.
Most records have multiple names attached to them before a single fan ever hears a note. Every one of those names is owed something for their contribution.
The race after release day
Release day drops the song into a week already crowded with other new music. Cutting through the noise takes more than just good luck.
Important playlists add the track early, the right radio stations slide it into rotation, a top brand plays it in all their stores and a sync placement in a big drama gives the song a rapid jump in popularity.
Every one of those plays — streamed, spun, synced — gets picked up somewhere by a performing rights organization (PRO) or a collective management organization (CMO).
Their job is to track exactly where a song gets used, then send royalty payments to whoever's named on the contracts and credited for the creation.
Back to business
Now let's head back to your restaurant, café, museum, gym or hotel lobby. Playing music in a business is essentially an entire economy that runs in parallel to the one everyone knows about.
Plenty of businesses reach for an obvious shortcut: somebody's personal account, plugged straight into the speakers. Personal streaming services aren't licensed for business use, though, and that's left a lot of businesses carrying a risk they hadn't accounted for.
This is the exact gap that Soundtrack closes: the same interactive, on-demand, music experience that listeners already expect from their own phones with one glaring difference. It's built with a licensing framework that's meant for commercial use. Not to mention that it's also enhanced with features that benefit business owners.
Soundtrack is the world's leading music streaming platform for business for a reason. A catalog of over 125 million songs and thousands of playlists, with every single play tracked and reported accurately.
For music creators, that last part is the one that matters most. Every name on those contracts is owed correct payment, whether it's a lower rate for one listener at home, or a higher rate for every single person in your business space.
Most people only notice that the room sounds right. The creators behind the scenes notice a whole lot more.
That's the whole chain, from start to finish. It was never really a chain about one artist at all. It was never even just about landing in the ears of one fan. Soundtrack is a vital part of the entire music industry. Delivering all of those songs that were once only a bolt of inspiration, into a full-fledged soundtrack that changes the tone in a space in your business.
