We are above all a film distribution company and as such the bulk of royalties we pay must go to the digital media content providers. As a result, the Pairing Fee we offer to publishers is modest. But we hope it proves our commitment to working with you, not against you.
Beyond that, there are other ways we are willing to partner with you in an effort to increase our royalty obligations to you. These partnerships are extremely valuable to us and we are very willing to negotiate terms on a per case basis.
Behind this rather vague offer is a clear recognition on our part: the customer will always listen to what the composer or publisher has to say much more than they will listen to us. Partner with us on a promotional effort and we will bend over backward to make it worth your time.
Drop us a line to get a conversation started. Let's work together to raise everybody's boats.
1. USE THE WISH LIST
Ion keeps a list of music titles that have been vetted for both rights clearances and commercial appeal. You can find it on our website. In the footer of any page click on Content Partners, then click on the WISH LIST button. We use several fields to rank the attractiveness of each title. In order of importance, watch for titles that are:
Effective October 1, 2021 we made a change to the way we set product pricing. This change was necessary as we continue to refine our systems for both efficiency and profitability.
THE BACKSTORY
We have invested heavily in the development of the Muséik platform. Customers who have used it commonly tell us it has great value, but new customers are reluctant to spend even $50 on the platform. Beyond that, we received a great deal of pushback from customers when we tried to get them to take a one year subscription to the platform. We also recognized that our old software pricing system was applied unevenly. It was time to rethink how we pull value from the Muséik software.
THE SOLUTION
Starting in October we republished pricing on all our products. The new pricing includes an embedded fee for use of the Muséik software according to this table:
PRODUCT SALE PRICE | SOFTWARE FEE |
<$15 | FREE |
$15 - $100 | $10 |
$101-$150 | $25 |
$151-$250 | $50 |
$251-$1,000 | $75 |
$1,001-$2,500 | $100 |
$2,500+ | $150 |
HOW THIS IMPACTS YOU
When we calculate royalty payments using this new system we first subtract the software fee from the gross revenue. Royalties are now paid using the formula: (REVENUE - SOFTWARE FEE) x ROYALTY RATE. As we made this change we raised the prices on almost all our product to ensure that your payout would be impacted as little as possible.
If you have any questions about this new system please get in touch.
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By contrast, the content acquisition issue is not solved through increased sales, it is made worse. And for this reason we have begun to focus energy and resources on methods to expand our network of content creators.
The objective is not to create competition for you, it is to ensure that as our market exposure expands we have the ability to feed enough new and relevant content to our customers to keep them satisfied. In fact, our product development strategy assumes that if we fail to offer an ever bigger collection of fresh new content on a regular basis, our current customers will lose interest and drift away. If you understand the cost of customer acquisition, you will recognize the importance of keeping a customer once you have them.
We welcome your help in all of this. Here are some ways you can assist:
This week royalty payments will be processed for all our content partners. These payments will include royalties owed for both the 3rd and the 4th quarters of 2021. We also have a few changes to share.
WHY TWO QUARTERS?
Between the severe sales slump during COVID and our efforts to revamp how royalty data is processed, the date for cutting Q3 royalty payments came and went. Ultimately the decision was made to postpone the Q3 payments and lump them together with Q4. We work hard to maintain the trust and confidence of our content partners. We apologize if this delay in Q3 payments caused any confusion.
NEW ROYALTY PAYMENT POLICY
Effective January 1, 2022 Ion Concert Media has instituted a new policy regarding the payment of royalties. As before, royalty payments will be made two months after the end of a calendar quarter, on the 15th day of that month For example, Q4 royalties will be sent out on February 15, which is in the second month after the end of that quarter.
The new policy says that no royalty checks will be cut for sums less than ten dollars ($10.00 USD). If your balance due is less than $10 at the end of a quarter then that balance will roll over to the following quarter, and continue to roll over to subsequent quarters until the total due is equal to or greater than $10.
You will always be able to see your royalties due and when each royalty charge was paid on your Vendor Portal page. See the next section below for details.
CONTENT PARTNER VENDOR PORTAL
When we launched our new website last July we included Vendor Portal pages for each of our content partners. Early this week emails will be going out to all currently active partners with details about how to access your portal, your current royalty balance, and other helpful information. Please watch for that email to arrive and let us know if you have any questions.
]]>It is still early, but we see signs of two significant industry trends emerging from the pandemic chaos.
First, we saw many live show content providers face severe downward pressure on pricing. Stories of price concessions at rates of 30-50% off the bid prices were not uncommon. The Hollywood blockbuster live event shows seem to have been largely immune to these deep price cuts, but there are rumors that even the biggest Hollywood shows are providing discounts in an effort to ignite sales. We are watching closely to see if these price reductions become permanent. As the only content provider in the space built to perform on volume, we would welcome a price reset that makes the affordability of Muséik more attractive to show producers.
Second, and much more significant, it seems at least some show producers, conductors and other stakeholders are coming out of the pandemic with a renewed commitment to champion what might be generally called "non-traditional programming." We predict that female and minority composers stand to benefit the most from this potential paradigm shift, but we are also tracking what seems to be an increased appetite for immersive digital media-rich content. And where composer demographics and multimedia content converge the buzz is white hot at times.
Both of these perceived shifts are still young and a very long way from becoming normalized. Claims about the arrival of a new paradigm in concert programming in particular seems to be a long-standing prediction that never quite comes to pass.
But in the last few years Ion Concert Media has proven its business model and established itself as a viable player in the ever-expanding concert media marketplace. Now our attention shifts from proving our viability to doing what we can to help shape the future. We continue to believe strongly in the disruptive power of the Muséik platform. And we intend to leverage Muséik to effect change. With hard work and a little luck maybe we can play a small role in making these new trends mainstream reality.
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But we survived. And while the virus is still headline news today, people around the globe are returning to theaters and concert halls to experience live entertainment. Our sales in the past three months reflect this change: January 2022 sales nearly equalled all our sales in 2021.
During the pandemic years we did accomplish things. Most notably, Muséik 3.0 was released in August of 2021. This was a complete rebuild of the platform with added DRM protections for our media files and greatly expanded audio functionality.
We also were blessed to receive a grant from the State of Minnesota. The Launch MN Grant provided $25K in grant funding for new product development. These resources allowed us to nearly double the size of the Ion Content Library during the second half of 2021.
Looking forward, we are encouraged by what we see. Orders from schools have hit new all-time highs, interest is returning for our big ticket Premium Library titles, and we continue to enjoy a steady stream of exciting new opportunities and content partnerships.
Be sure to read the next article, "Industry Outlook" for some thoughts about large scale trends we see developing that might have a long term positive impact on our business strategy.
In short, Ion Concert Media survived COVID and we are looking forward to rapid growth and expanding opportunities in the months ahead.