Orfium signs global UGC monetization deal with Japanese label Pony Canyon

23 July 2024 - Press release

Fourth deal in six months for Orfium in Asia as it continues to expand its international client base

  

Orfium (the ‘Company’), the global technology leader solving the entertainment industry’s biggest challenges around digital music and broadcast rights management, announces that it has partnered with Japanese record label Pony Canyon.  It is the latest in a series of deals secured by Orfium in Asia, as it continues to grow its client base in the region following recent agreements with Avex, Bandai Namco and JASRAC in Japan, as well as BROMIS, a consortium of major broadcasters and music rights holders in South Korea. 

Pony Canyon has selected Orfium as its partner for music catalog management on YouTube. Orfium will apply its AI-based matching technology to track the use of the label’s repertoire on user-generated content (UGC) platforms, ensuring the revenue due to Pony Canyon, and the talent it represents, is maximized and effectively captured.  

Pony Canyon Inc. is a Japanese entertainment company and leader in the music industry in Japan, the world’s second largest music market. Pony Canyon works with some of the biggest artists in Japan, including Official Hige Dandism whose song ‘Subtitle’ was the most popular Japanese song on Apple Music and the third most streamed Japanese song on Spotify in 2023.   

In recent years, Pony Canyon has focused on expanding its operations outside of Japan, establishing Pony Canyon USA in 2015. As its global promotional efforts have continued to resonate, the audience for Pony Canyon’s music has grown, increasing the need for an effective, international UGC monetization partner such as Orfium.  

Orfium’s CEO, Rob Wells, said: “To partner with another hugely successful Japanese label, Pony Canyon, is a real privilege for Orfium. Building on our recent partnerships across Asia and beyond, the deal marks further progress in our journey to providing the technology infrastructure for the global entertainment industry. As the evolution of Japan’s digital music market accelerates and it embraces music usage on UGC platforms, we are actively helping creators and rightsholders to capitalize on the changing landscape and to track, and get rightly remunerated for, the growing use of their music on new media.”  

Alan Swarts, CEO of Orfium Japan, added: “As anime music, and Japanese music more broadly, gains popularity around the world, it is vital to have a global solution to ensure that those who create the music benefit from that popularity. This partnership is another opportunity for us to execute on that mission and I look forward to working with the Pony Canyon team to realize the true value of its repertoire.”

Shinichi Ishii, Music Marketing Div. General Manager at Pony Canyon, said: “We are working hard to ensure that Japanese music is celebrated and appreciated around the world. Now that music released by Pony Canyon is reaching more audiences and our artists are experiencing increasing international success, it is important for us to have the right infrastructure in place for creators to earn royalties when their music is used on YouTube. With the international reach of its team, cutting-edge technology and impressive track record as a trusted catalog management partner in Japan, Orfium is best placed to support us in this mission going forward.”  

The deal with Pony Canyon Inc. expands Orfium’s presence in Japan following its partnerships with Avex, Bandai Namco, Warner Music Japan and JASRAC. In March, Orfium announced that it had also been selected as the music reporting partner of choice for BROMIS, a consortium of major broadcasters and music rights holders in South Korea.